Prosecution to appeal ruling on PAL officer's testimony

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

MANILA (Updated 11:32 a.m.) -- The prosecution panel is planning to file an urgent manifestation to appeal Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile's ruling Tuesday disallowing one of its witnesses to testify on the perks allegedly received by Chief Justice Renato Corona from the Philippine Airlines (PAL).

"The plan is to appeal the ruling of JPE (Enrile) through a written motion for reconsideration. We are hoping that one of the senators will see the relevancy of the PAL testimony in the integrity of the CJ (Corona)," Cibac party-list Representative Sherwin Tugna said in a text message Wednesday.

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"We are hoping that after the senators have read it, one of them will stand up on the floor and tackle the issue and eventually ask for a reconsideration and put the matter to a vote," he added.

Under the rules, neither the prosecution nor the defense can appeal the ruling of the presiding officer. Only the senator-judges can make such appeal.

In Tuesday's trial, Enrile denied the prosecution's bid to present Enrique Javier, PAL vice president for sales.

Javier was issued a subpoena to testify on the records of PAL platinum cards issued to the Chief Justice and his wife. He was also requested to bring passenger name records and copies of plane tickets showing the couple's travel to Honolulu, Hong Kong, Guam, and Singapore.

The prosecution said Javier's testimony is relevant to the panel's allegations in Article 3 of the impeachment complaint against the Chief Justice. Article 3 accuses Corona of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for failing to meet Article VIII, Section 7 (3) of the Constitution whereby a member of the Judiciary must be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity and independence after flip-flopping in final and executory cases.

Enrile said, however, that Article 3 did not include the alleged abuse of flight privileges granted to the Corona couple. He added the charge would have been bribery and that the House of Representatives should amend the articles of impeachment if it intends to pursue the accusation. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)