Chief Justice Renato Corona has asked the Senate impeachment court to impose sanctions against House prosecutors for releasing purported evidence against him in a string of press conferences before his trial which begins on Monday.
Corona cried foul over media reports about his condominium unit at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City.
He said the acquisition of the property “was candidly admitted and explained” in his official reply to the impeachment complaint against him.
In a seven-page manifestation, the Chief Justice described the actions by Representative Niel Tupas Jr. and other members of the House prosecution team as “a clever ruse to destroy (his) image before the bar of public opinion and generate a negative public perception of his guilt ahead of the impeachment trial.”
Corona strongly objected “to the prosecution’s unbridled dissemination of information or documents, which may not be admissible in evidence or relevant to the case.”
The Chief Justice manifested his “conformity to the authority” of the Senate impeachment court “to issue or promulgate any interim or disciplinary measures to enforce and carry out its legal mandate.”
Corona said the actions by Tupas and company were “a contemptible affront” to the impeachment court, whose constitutional mandate was “precisely to pass judgment on the complaint.”
He cited Rule XVIII of the impeachment trial, which barred senators, including the defense and prosecution, “from making any comments and disclosures in public pertaining to the merits of a pending impeachment trial.”
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