With a Little Help from my Kaibigan (The Corona Impeachment Trial)

The Thursday & Friday sittings of the Impeachment Trial of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Renato Corona, saw the prosecution lift their game. They advised the court of the order of their presentation of the articles of impeachment, well the first three of the eight (2, 7 and 1). They then started the presentation of documentary evidence related to Article Two which relates to the charges of graft and corruption leveled against Chief Justice Corona.

The Defense raised a series of objections ranging from the relevance of properties owned by Corona’s relatives to the actual validity of the Impeachment Article itself. The Presiding Officer of the court, Senate President, Juan Ponce-Enrile, in an attempt to expedite the proceedings, recognized the on-going nature of the objections and ordered both the Defense and the Prosecution to present written arguments pertaining to the issues.

The first witness for the Prosecution was the Clerk of the Supreme Court, Enriqueta Esguerra-Vidal. She was subpoenaed to not only attend the court but to bring Corona’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN) for the time he has been a member of the Supreme Court, documents of intense public speculation.  The Prosecution was unable to get the Clerk to hand over Corona’s SALNs to the court and it was left to Senator-judge Franklin M. Drilon, a staunch ally of President Aquino, to get them into the light of day. 

The senator-judges are at liberty to ask questions of witnesses along with the defense and the prosecution counsels and are immune from objections from either of the legal teams. It is also interesting to note that a significant number of the senator-judges ask their questions in Filipino. The proceedings, both written and oral are being conducted in English which for the majority of Filipinos is a second language. The senator-judges reverting to their mother tongue does raise a speculation about their understanding of the nuances of the trial’s primary language.