Corona holds 'crucial meeting' with lawyers

MANILA, Philippines - Chief Justice Renato Corona is ready to answer all questions about his assets and liabilities including the issues on his bank accounts, including his alleged dollar deposits, once he formally testifies at the impeachment trial.

At press time, Corona and his entire defense team were in a "crucial meeting" in preparation for his much-awaited testimony at the Senate on Tuesday.

Corona’s defense lawyers expressed full confidence that Corona and the entire legal team have prepared well for the grand testimony by the chief magistrate, who is facing the remaining three of the eight articles of impeachment.

Defense lawyer Rico Paolo Quicho said the team is ready to go head on with prosecutors, but not the senator-judges.

“We are ready to face the (House) prosecutors. We’re ready to lock horns with them. We are prepared. We’re willing to go 12 rounds against them. And as far as with the senator-judges (are concerned) we’ve started praying. Hopefully, they would be kinder, gentler to us,” Quicho said.

“Because we cannot really object to their (senator-judges) questions. So we are just hoping for fairness. And we’re just hoping that they would wake up at the right side of the bed this morning,” Quicho added.

Quicho said Corona and his defense team have been meeting since last week to prepare for the long-awaited testimony of the chief justice before the witness stand.

As such, Corona knows that he is facing the high task of convincing both the senator-judges and the public that he deserves to continue to lead the Supreme Court, and that there is no reason to remove him from post.

“Naghahanda po talaga si CJ sa pagharap sapagkat alam niya po ito ay hindi magiging madali. Sapagkat alam niya po na hindi lamang po haharapin ang senator-judges, kakausapin din po niya ang publiko at ipapaliwanag ang mga issues na binato sa kanya,” Quicho said.

Quicho assured the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, that Corona will respect the process and that he expects that he would also be accorded the same.

“Asahan po natin na si CJ ay talagang handa, siya ay magiging magalang at makikita po natin ang isang chief justice na maari pa hong magpatuloy sa kanyang pamumuno sa ating Korte Suprema,” Quicho said.

“Gagalangin nya po ang proseso, at siya ay umaasa na a ng proseso ay gagalangin po sya,” the lawyer added.

Meanwhile, Senate majority leader Vicente Sotto III said that Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile reminded all senator-judges during Monday's caucus to avoid unnecessary statements during the questioning of Corona to avoid "controversies."

Sotto said that the two-minute rule will be strictly implemented by the Senate impeachment court.

Among the key issues that Corona is expected to answer are the bank accounts he maintained with PS Bank and the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), which were subject of the testimony of bank officials during the early part of the trial.

Corona’s lawyers said the chief justice may or may not bring bank statements depending on whether these are necessary to be presented before the court.

Corona’s lawyers indicated also that the chief magistrate will debunk claims by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, who testified last week about Corona’s alleged 82 dollar accounts, with $10- to $12-million in transactional balance.

The bank accounts will likely be reduced to three or four, contrary to the claims of Morales who based her testimony on the 17-page report of the anti-money laundering council.

Ombudsman subpoena not a mistake

Another defense lawyer, Tranquil Salvador III parried observations that the defense team’s move to call Morales to the witness stand prior to Corona’s testimony was a wrong move.

“This situation, the people think it backfired when the Ombudsman. We laid the predicate to his presentation. Pag-upo niya, yung baril na ilalabas, alam na namin kung ilan. Kung sampu ang itutok, alam namin eh… That’s the comfort what I see for now, we know what goods they have on him right now,” Salvador said.

Salvador recognized that the prosecution and Corona’s accusers will nonetheless bring the issue outside of the impeachment court, destroy Corona until the verdict comes out.

With the Ombudsman’s ammunition all out a week before Corona’s testimony, the defense team was able to prepare further for his date with history at 2 p.m. today at the Senate.

Karen Jimeno, a defense spokesman, maintained that Corona can still invoke his rights under the Constitution despite his decision to take the witness stand.

“It doesn’t mean that once you are at the witness stand you are stripped of your rights as an accused. You rights, as the law states, remains. He might invoke it, and he might altogether say, I will face all of this,” Jimeno said.

Jimeno said there is no mock trial or a rehearsal but other defense lawyers revealed that they provided Corona a set of questions and issues that they expect to be brought up during the trial.

“We thought it best to just give him all the details and the issues that may be asked of him which he should answer. We laid it for him. So that is why, we also have no clue as to what would be his testimony,” Jimeno said.