In a preview of legal strategy, Chief Justice Renato Corona’s team is seeking a pretrial conference in an attempt to look at the prosecution evidence, but Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has rejected the initiative.
The defense team headed by retired Justice Serafin Cuevas wants to have the conference to settle a variety of issues, from the “quantum of proof” needed for a conviction to the identification of witnesses and how much time would be devoted to their examination by both camps.
Ramon Esguerra, a member of the defense team, said settling these issues during the preliminary conference would “help abbreviate the proceedings, the entire process.”
Corona’s camp said the pretrial conference would give an opportunity to determine what type of evidence would be needed to secure a conviction.
Esguerra said it remained unclear whether the basis would be “preponderance of evidence,” as was purportedly the case during the impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada in 2001 that was aborted and led to his ouster in a people power uprising.
But Enrile on Tuesday had said a pretrial conference was no longer needed, noting that issues, such as the one on the time limit for the examination of witness, were already covered by existing rules.
“There will be no pretrial,” he told reporters, citing the Senate’s mandate to “forthwith proceed” with the trial once the articles of impeachment had been transmitted by the House of Representatives.
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