Drilon wants Fortun brothers to defend ‘pointless exercise’

Sen. Franklin Drilon urged the impeachment court yesterday to order defense lawyers Sigfrid and Raymund Fortun to explain why they should not be cited for contempt for subjecting the court to a "futile and pointless exercise" last Jan. 8.

Meanwhile, Sen. Anna Dominique Coseteng indicated that she would also file a similar motion against prosecutor Raul Gonzalez for virtually calling her a liar regarding the presence of a prosecution witness in the gallery the other day.

Coseteng said she saw former president Jose Luis Yulo Jr. of the Philippine Stock Exchange in the gallery while another prosecution witness was testifying which is against impeachment rules. Gonzalez said he did not see Yulo, drawing the ire of Coseteng who said that Gonzalez was in effect calling her a liar.

Drilon’s motion stemmed from a dare by Sigfrid Fortun on prosecution witness Ma. Caridad Rodenas to identify Delia Rajas in the audience. Rodenas has testified that Rajas opened an account and then withdrew P50 million from the Shaw Boulevard branch of Land Bank of the Philippines where she is the cashier.

Rodenas said she could identify Rajas again. Challenged by Sigfrid Fortun, Rodenas went around the Senate gallery and then declared that Rajas was not there. Fortun, upon the insistence of senators, then presented a woman named Delia Rajas who turned out to be a cook of Catalina Ang, mother of presidential friend Charlie "Atong" Ang.

Rodenas said the cook was not the person who transacted business with Land Bank.

Drilon said the Fortun brothers violated the rule that a lawyer owes the court candor and good faith and should avoid wasting the court’s time.

He claimed that the two, "in a malicious manner and in a manner utterly lacking in candor, misled this court during the Jan. 8 trial into conducting a futile exercise."

Drilon said he would file a formal motion that would also be signed by Senators Renato Cayetano and Rodolfo Biazon. Biazon had said that the defense lawyers played a "dirty trick" on the impeachment court.

The Fortun brothers, however, said that they did not seek to mislead the impeachment court, and that they merely wanted to impeach the credibility of Rodenas. They said that the prosecution had tried to link Rajas to Ang, and it turned out that the one who opened the bank account was not the Rajas who had worked with Ang’s mother.

In a radio interview, Raymund Fortun stressed that they had no intention whatsoever to mislead the impeachment court in presenting the "real" Delia Rajas as the defense panel pointed out that it is the prosecution that should be held in contempt for misrepresentation.

Fortun said the prosecution panel had confused the court when it insisted that the Delia Rajas who withdrew the portion of the P130-million in government funds from the Land Bank of the Philippines allegedly intended for the President was the same Delia Rajas who is an employee of Catalina Ang, mother of Charling "Atong" Ang. – Efren Danao