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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Impeachment complaint badly written—Fariñas

by Christine F. Herrera

A KEY prosecutor in the trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona on Tuesday admitted he did not sign the impeachment complaint because it was “badly written.”

Prosecutor and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas also said he failed to sign the 57-page complaint because he was “a slow reader” and not fond of “speed reading” like 188 of his colleagues who signed the document in a matter of three hours.

Fariñas also told a radio interview that he felt the House prosecutors should drop four of the eight articles of impeachment to save time and concentrate only on the strongest cases against the chief justice.

Already, prosecutors have quietly dropped the complaint about the Supreme Court’s alleged flip-flopping in a decision granting city status to 16 municipalities, a case that President Benigno Aquino III had used to attack the chief justice.

But the case was dropped due to lack of evidence and witnesses, prosecutors said Tuesday.

That was aggravated by the “faulty” crafting of the articles of impeachment, which has caused delays in the trial, the senator-judges said.

“The crafting of the impeachment complaint is not good. You are handicapped by it. If it is not good, it wouldn’t matter how good the lawyers are,” Presiding Judge and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told the prosecution on Tuesday after he pointed out that the cases being presented on Article 3 were, as in the case of Article 2, not properly alleged.

“The lack of evidence and witnesses, including Supreme Court justices, forced the prosecution to alter its strategy for us to buy time,” a prosecutor told the Manila Standard.

The trial was adjourned earlier than scheduled at 5:22 p.m. because the prosecution did not have any more witnesses to call.

Prosecutor Arlene Kaka Bag-ao confirmed the case of 16 municipalities, which was supposed to be part of Article 3, would no longer be taken up.

Bag-ao said the team chose to retain the allegation of flip-flopping in the case involving Philippine Airlines and the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines.

Fariñas was supposed to handle the case of the 16 municipalities but was assigned, instead, to present the case of the “lavish parties and Rustan’s purchases” of the chief justice and his wife using Supreme Court funds, a prosecutor, who was privy to the change in strategy, said.

At Tuesday’s trial, Bag-ao told the Senate impeachment court that their requests for a subpoena for Supreme Court justices and officials and PAL executives remained pending with the court.

But Enrile said that owing to the principle of checks and balances, the Senate impeachment court was strictly observing co-equality with the Supreme Court, and would not compel justices to appear before them.

“We would welcome the Supreme Court Justices to this impeachment court if they come voluntarily, but we will not summon them and issue them subpoena,” Enrile said.

“But the court will decide in a caucus [Wednesday] on the pending requests and pending incidents.”

In 2008, when he was still a senator, Mr. Aquino petitioned the Supreme Court against converting the 16 municipalities into cities for their failure to comply with the requirement that their population must reach 250,000. He lost the case.

In his reply to the impeachment complaint, Corona denied the allegation of flip-flopping, saying the decision was a collegial one.

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