Asking SC To Stop Impeachment Trial

The CJ Corona trial is now on its 14th day and after three weeks (4 days/week) of trial with the Senate sitting as an impeachment court, the prosecution team is almost finished with the testimony of its witnesses and in securing evidence for Impeachment Article II except for the bank records of the accused which is scheduled to be presented this afternoon. The evidence being gathered are intended to prove the failure of CJ Corona to disclose to the public his statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) plus the non-inclusion of some of his properties.

The impeachment trial, despite the delays due to questions on technicalities, can be be said to be gaining momentum until, in what appears to be a declaration of war, the defense lawyers filed an urgent petition with the Supreme Court (SC) this afternoon, seeking a stop to the  proceedings against it own Chief Justice and the nullification of the complaint filed against him. The petition, among others, accused the Senator-judges of grave abuse of discretion in issuing subpoena for bank accounts as requested by the prosecution.

The urgent petition wants the High Court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) to enjoin the following:

• stop the proceedings before the impeachment court.
• stop the implementation of the court’s Feb 6, 2012 resolution issuing the subpoenas to the banks.
• prevent the officers and representatives of BPI and PSBank where CJ Corona had accounts from testifying and submitting documents on petitioner’s or his family’s bank accounts.
• stop the presentation, reception and admission of evidence on paragraphs 2.3 and 2.4 of the impeachment complaint.

To those of us who are watching the proceedings closely, I know that this defense team’s move asking SC to stop the impeachment trial came as a big surprise. All the while, they had been professing that their client can easily explain and justify everything on his SALN and now here they are seeking acquittal of CJ Corona via TRO by the same court he is heading. What will happen now to his own pronouncement that he will fight this case until the end. Is this the ending that he wants?