SC asked to stop removal of Corona

MANILA, Philippines - A group of petitioners yesterday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the removal of Renato Corona as chief justice.

Lawyers Alan Paguia and Homobono Adaza and journalists Herman Laurel and Rodolfo Salandanan questioned the constitutionality of the impeachment trial before the SC and sought the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction stopping the enforcement of what they said was an “infirm decision” of the Senate sitting as impeachment court.

They also asked the high court to set oral arguments on the case.

Court observers earlier said the petitions have become moot and academic after the impeachment court handed down its guilty verdict on Corona.

In a six-page urgent motion, the petitioners reiterated their claim in their petitions filed last January that the impeachment trial violated Sec. 3 (2) Article XI of the 1987 Constitution on the verification required of impeachment complaints against impeachable public officers, and Sec. 1 of Article III (Bill of Rights) on rights to due process and equal protection of the laws.

“The Senate, assuming jurisdiction on a mere scrap of paper, and holding and completing the trial, despite constitutional and legal objections, as well as the pendency of six petitions in the Supreme Court clearly disputing the holding of the trial, led to the serious misinterpretation of the provisions of the Constitution resulting to distortions of the fundamental legal document, which should never be allowed,” the motion stated.

Petitioners also argued that the verdict handed down by the impeachment court was null and void simply because of lack of jurisdiction of the Senate over the “constitutionally infirm” complaint filed by the House of Representatives in December last year.

They insisted that the complaint was not verified by the overwhelming majority of the complainants; the House of Representatives committed grave abuse of discretion by transmitting the complaint to the Senate; the Senate committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction by accepting the Articles of Impeachment and giving it due course.

They also cited as ground the manner by which Senator-judges Franklin Drilon, Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano, Francis Pangilinan, Edgardo Angara, Aquilino Pimentel III, Jinggoy Estrada, Panfilo Lacson, Francis Escudero, Teofisto Guingona III, and Serge Osmeña III voted in the case.

Petitioners said the senators were “biased, prejudiced and partial... behaving like judges-prosecutors, even to the point of badgering witnesses, just so the points which could not be achieved by the House prosecutors could be obtained.”

“The conduct of these senators is in rank and blatant violation of Sec. 1, paragraph 2 of Rule 137 of the Rules of Court and the Gingoyon doctrine of this (Supreme) Court, which (states) that a judge should inhibit himself from presiding over a case where his independence, bias, prejudice and partiality (are) being questioned,” the pleading reads.

As to the issue of jurisdiction, petitioners argued that the SC may perform its power of judicial review in spite of the conclusion of the trial since it is constitutionally mandated to “review all acts of all branches of government that commit grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction.”

“It is imperative at this stage in time for the Honorable Court to rule on these matters at the earliest opportunity to put the disturbed national situation to rest since it is the Supreme Court that has the final word on what the law is, not the impeachment court,” they stressed.

Corona was removed from his post last May 29 after the impeachment court found him guilty of culpable violation of the constitution and betrayal of public trust for failure to disclose his $2.4 million and P80 million in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

Apart from the petitions of Paguia, Adaza, Laurel and Salandanan, the high court is also expected to resolve five other similar petitions filed by tax informer Danilo Lihaylihay, lawyer Vladimir Cabigao, former Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Vicente Millora, lawyer Oliver Lozano, and businessman Rufino Martinez when the SC resumes regular session on June 19.