With the prosecution resting its case, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Wednesday said Chief Justice Renato Corona’s best defense was to take the witness stand and personally rebut charges he fudged his asset declarations and showed bias in favor of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Before adjourning Day 25 of the trial, which will resume on March 12 for the defense presentation, the court gave the prosecution until Friday to submit a formal offer of documentary evidence and Corona’s lawyers five days to respond.
Enrile warned prosecutors against claiming that they had presented overwhelming evidence to convict Corona.
“You are putting this court in a very serious predicament because you already make pronouncements about the weight and the quantum of the evidence that you have presented for your side,” Enrile said.
“Please do not make sweeping statements outside that may befuddle or confuse the people or convince them that you’ve won already,” he said. “There’s no winner yet. Don’t be too sure.
The tribunal’s presiding officer agreed that it would be in Corona’s “best interest” to take the witness stand and testify, particularly on Articles 2 and 7 of the impeachment complaint.
“That’s my view,” Enrile said in Filipino in an ambush interview. “To me, he needs to explain only on two things, Article 2 and Article 7.”
Article 2 refers to Corona’s alleged failure to publicly disclose his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN). In the course of the trial, the prosecution noted alleged discrepancies between entries in his SALN and the actual value of his properties and peso bank accounts.
Article 7 alleges that Corona had favored Arroyo, now a Pampanga congresswoman, through the Supreme Court’s issuance of a Nov. 15, 2011, temporary restraining order (TRO) allowing her to seek medical treatment abroad while she was facing charges of electoral sabotage.
Enrile offered a theory on why the prosecution announced on Tuesday to drop five of its eight articles of impeachment for alleged betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.
“They know that if they pursued (the rest of the articles), they could not secure the required votes to remove the respondent using those five articles that they removed … They didn’t want to waste their effort on these anymore,” he said in Filipino in a radio interview.
Prosecutors need to secure the vote of at least 16 senators in at least one article of impeachment to convict Corona.
“Psychologically, many interpretations could be drawn (from the prosecution move) because you make an allegation and then you withdraw it. That means that you have no evidence to prove it,” Enrile said in an ambush interview.
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