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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

MANILA (Updated) -- The trial on impeachment complaint filed by the House of Representatives against Chief Justice Renato Corona will likely start next year with the Senate set to take Christmas break Wednesday, a lawmaker said.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said there is no more time to convene this year to act on the impeachment complaint, as the Senate will adjourn on Wednesday for Christmas break. It also cannot hold session outside the legislative calendar.

More than half of the members of the House of the Representatives affixed their signatures to an impeachment complaint against Corona on Monday.

"For me, we have already no time. I don't know about my companions here. We will tackle that when we resume in January. We will adjourn on Wednesday under our legislative calendar," Enrile said.

Chief Justice Renato Corona

The impeachment complaint was ready when the House majority bloc emerged from a caucus Monday afternoon. Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teodoro Casiño said it was a "foregone conclusion" that the complaint will get enough support at the House to be carried and transmitted to the Senate for trial.

The complaint needed 96 votes -- a third of 287 members -- to dispense with committee hearings and determine sufficiency in form and substance in the complaint. At 188, close to twice the required number, the impeachment complaint will be brought straight to the House in plenary.

The complaint accused Corona of allegedly betraying the public trust through his "partiality and subservience in cases involving the Arroyo administration"; failing a constitutional requirement to disclose his net worth; and failing to meet a constitutional requirement that members of the judiciary "be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity, and independence."

Also included in the complaint are culpable violations of the Constitution when the Supreme Court stopped the House from moving on an impeachment complaint against former ombudsman Gutierrez, and another for reversing decisions on the creation of 16 new cities and the province of Dinagat Island.

Corona also allegedly betrayed the public trust by removing from the House its power to impeach when it created a committee that cleared Associate Justice Mariano Del Castillo of plagiarism. He has also been accused of graft for failing to account for the Judiciary Development Fund and Special Allowance for the Judiciary.

Corona's most recent ground for impeachment is his alleged betrayal of the public trust by granting Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a temporary restraining order on a Justice department order keeping her from leaving the country for medical treatment.

House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman said the impeachment complaint was the "mother of all blackmail" since members of the House were threatened that their Priority Development Assistance Fund allocations would be withheld.

Assistant Minority Leader Ma. Milagros Magsaysay, meanwhile, said the quick move against Corona is a threat to the rule of law. She said the government is going after members of the Judiciary one by one.

An impeachment complaint against Del Castillo, who has been accused of plagiarism and intellectual dishonesty, is also pending at the House committee on justice. The committee is listed as the complainant in the plunder case against Corona.

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said all that is left is for the complaint to be included in the order of business, or agenda, of the House and to transmit it to the Senate.

Once received by the Senate, it will then convene into an impeachment court to try Corona.
Under the rules that the Senate adopted for the aborted impeachment trial of former ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, the Senate will then summon Corona and give him 10 days to answer the complaint.

It will not be a walk in the park for President Benigno Aquino III and his allies to oust Corona, a political analyst said Monday.

"The Senate is, by far, a 50-50 proposition. With this, it's difficult to get a two-thirds vote (15 out of 23) to remove Corona as Chief Justice," Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute of Political and Economic Reform, told Sun.Star.

Only four senators are members of the Aquino-led Liberal Party: Senators Francis Pangilinan, Franklin Drilon, Ralph Recto and Teofisto Guingona III. Those who have signified support for the President on several issues are Senators Panfilo Lacson, Sergio Osmeña III, and Antonio Trillanes IV.

Senators Joker Arroyo, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., Miriam Defensor-Santiago, and Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile may run against the Palace interests.

Both Santiago and Enrile blasted calls for Corona to inhibit on cases involving Arroyo, who was accused of rigging the results of the 2007 senatorial elections.

Santiago had said asking Corona to step aside would violate the principle of independence of the judiciary.
The Palace has also distanced itself from the impeachment complaint, with Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte calling it an "independent move" by the House.

"I am not saying it is uncalled for. We know what necessitated the response, but at this point, we do not know where it came from. At this point it is surprising to see the response," she said.

She said although the President has taken swipes at the High Court over its decisions, particularly the grant of a temporary restraining order to Pampanga Representative Arroyo, there had been no orders to impeach the Chief Justice.

She also denied that there is a government campaign to destabilize the judiciary, as claimed by Supreme Court spokesman Midas Marques.

"We fail to see how it (impeachment) can be equated to as a demolition of the judiciary or its independence. It's constitutionally provided for," she said.

Speaking to Supreme Court employees Monday morning, Corona said he is ready to take "more determined steps in the coming days" with regard to a looming ouster plot.

"I am here. I am not going anywhere. I am your defender and most of all, I am your Chief Justice," he said. "Together we will face these challenges and fight all who dare to destroy the court and our system of justice under the Constitution."

A signature campaign in Cebu is also seeking the ouster of Corona,whose installation as Chief Justice sparked debate in 2010. He still has seven years to go before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.

He will outlast Aquino's term which will end by 2016.

In a related development, Former Akbayan Representative Risa Hontiveros, one of the co-convenors of the Bantay Gloria Network, dismissed the destabilization attempt against the High Court. (Virgil Lopez/Jonathan de Santos/Jill Beltran/PNA/Sunnex)


Senate runs out of time to act on impeach plaint, lawmaker says | Sun.Star