Chief Justice seeks ‘outright dismissal’ of impeach raps

MANILA (Updated) — Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato Corona has asked the Senate, which is sitting as an impeachment court, to dismiss the impeachment complaint against him for constitutional infirmities.
Crossing party lines and with 188 votes, the House of Representatives impeached Corona as the SC’s 23rd Chief Justice anchored on three grounds – betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption and culpable violation of the Constitution.
The Chief Justice in his 79-page reply to the impeachment complaint said the House of Representatives complaint is invalid because congressmen behind it affixed their signatures without reading it.
Corona responded point by point why all the eight grounds for impeachment should be dismissed.
The grounds for impeachment include: 1.) Betrayal of public trust due to subservience to Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during her presidency, from the time of his appointment as Supreme Court justice to his midnight appointment as Chief Justice; 2.) Culpable violation of the Constitution for non-disclosure of the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth; 3.) Undue closeness to Macapagal-Arroyo as shown by the appointment of the Chief Justice’s wife to a seat in the Bases Conversion and Development Authority; 4.) Betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution when he issued a status quo order ante that had suspended the hearings of the House justice committee on the impeachment case against former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez; 5.) Voting on the cityhood cases and the creation of the province of Dinagat; 6.) Creation of the ethics committee to look into the plagiarism case against SC Justice Mariano del Castillo, which resulted in clearing Del Castillo of any liability; 7.) Temporary restraining order on the travel ban on Mrs. Arroyo; 8.) Refusal to account for judicial development funds, special allowances and other court collections.
Corona said the impeachment case against him should be dismissed outright “for failing to meet the requirements of the Constitution, or that the Impeachment Court enters a judgment of acquittal for all the Articles of impeachment.”
Former justice secretary Serafin Cuevas, head of Corona’s defense panel, said Section 4, Rule 7 of the Rules of Court requires the verification of the complaint, such that each of the signatories “read the contents thereof.”
Public admissions of congressmen, however, Cuevas said, showed that there was no opportunity to read the complaint, while majority of signatories signed without reading the complaint.
“In this case, the requirement of verification is not a mere procedural rule but a constitutional requirement. In other words, failure to meet the requirement renders the impeachment of CJ Corona unconstitutional,” he said.
While he acknowledges the fact that the impeachment is a political proceedings, Corona, through his lawyers, said that it is being used so that the Aquino administration will have a “friendly court” that will rule on his favor.
“Ensuring political advantage would amply justify the allegation that President Aquino seeks to subjugate the Supreme Court,” Corona’s reply said.
“What we have before us, then, is a complaint born out of the bias against CJ Corona and the predisposition to destroy him by associating him with the unpopular former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo…What we also have are hidden forces who will be benefited by CJ Corona’s ouster and who are conspiring and causing intrigue behind the scene to ensure his removal and their re-emergence into power to the detriment of the Bench, Bar and the populace,” Corona’s reply said.
Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teodoro Casino, quoted in a news report saying his colleagues were not given a chance to study the complaint before signing, has made clear that he said that before the majority caucus. He said the complaint was discussed at the caucus and that they were allowed to read the complaint. He has said, however, that he did not read it “word for word.”
Corona also denied allegations that he was partial and subservient to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and that he had voted to protect or favor his alleged benefactor or patroness by accepting his appointment as chief justice in the last days of her presidency. His lawyer further questioned Corona’s supposed betrayal of public trust by voting in certain High Court decisions or actions. In effect, Cuevas said the complaint called on the impeachment court to review certain decisions of the SC, which is not sanctioned by the Constitution.
“Complainants demonstrate their lack of understanding of the concept of a collegial body like the SC, where each member has a single vote. Whether he be the Chief Justice or the most junior associate, his vote is of equal weight as that of others,” Cuevas said.
Like the Senate President, Cuevas said the Chief Justice has no control over any Justice of the SC, and the decision of the High Court, either by division or en banc, is a result of the deliberative process and voting among the Justices.
Thus, he cannot be made accountable for the outcome of cases before the SC which acts as a collegial tribunal.
The Senate Impeachment Court has set the deadline for the filing of the reply of the Chief Justice only until Monday.
In a press conference, SC Spokesman and Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said the reply of the Chief Justice was first filed before the House of Representatives and then to the Senate.
Likewise, Marquez also confirmed that a legal team of Corona who will appear before the Senate Impeachment Court has been formed.
Marquez assured that the job of the chief magistrate of the highest court of the land will not be affected during the height of the trial before the Impeachment Court.
On the four petitions seeking to stop the impeachment trial against Corona, Marquez said, they have been raffled off to different justices of the highest court of the land.
The petitioners were lawyer Vladimir Cabigao, private citizen Danilo Lihaylihay, Atty. Oliver Lozano and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).
Meanwhile, House Deputy Majority Leader Romero Frederico Quimbo, spokesman for the prosecution panel, said they will prepare their reply by January 2.
“The Office of the (House) Secretary General received the answer at around 1:30 this afternoon. It is being photocopied and distributed to the prosecution teams to allow them time to read it and prepare our reply which is due (in) five days,” Quimbo said.
Bayan Muna party-list Representative Neri Colmenares said the prosecution will asks the impeachment court to subpoena Justice Presbitero Velasco to shed light on the irregularities detailed in Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s dissent regarding the promulgation of a resolution Velasco issued on November 28 explaining the Court decision on the temporary restraining order allowing President Gloria Arroyo to travel abroad.
Aside from Velasco, Colmenares said that they will also ask the impeachment court to summon Clerk of Court Atty. Enriqueta Vidal.
In her dissenting opinion, Sereno said that the resolution issuing a TRO on the watchlist order was not “a fully accurate reflection of what took place” during the deliberation.
Sereno said that Corona “corrected” the draft of the November 18, 2011 resolution written by Velasco.
Sereno added that on November 23, 2011, Vidal informed Associate Justice Antonio Carpio that Corona sent him a handwritten correction on the typewritten draft of Velasco’s resolution with the instruction that it be promulgated immediately.
Replying through a letter, Carpio said that the promulgation of Corona’s version of the resolution be stopped and that it should first be deliberated by the justices.
Carpio said that Corona’s version is to the effect that the Arroyo couple has complied with the conditions set by the SC and the TRO on the watchlist order is “in full force and effect”.
On the other hand, Velasco said that Sereno broke the High Court’s “confidentiality rule”.
“The charge that Chief Justice Corona fundamentally altered the Court’s decision declaring the TRO effective even if the Court has just decided by a vote of 7-6 that the TRO conditions have not been substantially complied with, is serious and could be used as additional evidence to prove CJ Corona’s partiality to protect Gloria Arroyo and allow her one more chance to escape for abroad. While the Court decided that the TRO is not effective until its conditions are met, the Chief Justice through Justice Velasco declared the TRO effective. Article VII, which is already a strong case for impeachment, has suddenly become one of the strongest charges in the impeachment complaint,” Colmenares said.
Colmenares is the lead prosecutor of Article VII of the impeachment complaint against Corona for the “betrayal of public trust through his partiality in granting a temporary restraining order (TRO) in favor of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo in order to give them an opportunity to escape prosecution and to frustrate the ends of justice”.
“Considering that Justice Velasco did not contest the accuracy of Justice Sereno’s dissent but merely claimed that the supposed irregularities are “confidential” is certainly disturbing. I hope he will not persist in using confidentiality and “privileged communication” in the Senate as “secrecy” is certainly not a good way of convincing the people and the Senate of the innocence of the Chief Justice,” Colmenares said.
The Senate impeachment court is set to convene on January 16, 2012 to hear the eight articles of impeachment against Corona, including his alleged non-disclosure of his statement of assets, liabilities and networth and Corona’s alleged favorable “voting trend” on cases involving the Arroyo couple. (Jonathan de Santos/ECV/Kathrina Alvarez /PNA/Sunnex)

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