Prosecution calls for sobriety in impeachment trial

Monday, February 13, 2012

SPOKESPERSONS for the House prosecution team called for sobriety from all sides of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona after the defense panel accused Malacañang of efforts to bribe senator-judges.

In a press conference called Sunday evening, Corona's lawyers alleged that Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. had offered a P100-million bribe to senator-judges to defy the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court (SC) on the subpoena of Corona's dollar accounts. They said the information came from an unnamed source.

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Ochoa, in a press statement, denied the "unsubstantiated, unattributed allegations" and played them down as a gimmick.

"We don't want to intensify the issue anymore. We request for sobriety from all sides, especially the defense panel. They should respect the process," prosecution spokesperson Romero Frederico "Miro" Quimbo told reporters in a press briefing.

"Are they going to accept the proceedings here only when it is convenient for them?" he said.

Quimbo said despite pronouncements made by Corona and his lawyers that he is willing to face the impeachment tribunal, the Chief Justice has refused to recognize the proceedings in the Senate.

Last week, the Chief Justice filed a petition before the SC seeking the issuance of a TRO on impeachment proceedings in the Senate.

The House prosecution team also dismissed the claim of the defense panel as a "desperate attempt to discredit the impeachment proceedings and a direct attack on the independence and impartiality of the senator-judges."

Aurora Representative Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara, also a spokesperson for the prosecution team, said the defense move was another tactic to lay the basis for mistrial and condition the mind of the public.

A high-ranking House leader described the accusation of the defense as a fantasy story compiled in "Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang".

"Like the most often used objection of former Justice (Serafin) Cuevas, it is hearsay. I think it was meant to pressure the senators. This is designed to influence the senators in deciding the issue in the defense favor. This is contemptuous at the very least," Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)