Senators berate defense lawyers

MANILA, Philippines - Lawyers of Chief Justice Renato Corona got a dressing down and were threatened with contempt by senators acting as judges in his impeachment trial a day after they accused the lawmakers of getting bribe offers of P100 million each from Malacañang.

Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada denounced “in the strongest possible terms” the allegations of defense lawyers in a press conference Sunday night at Club Filipino in San Juan. Lead defense counsel Serafin Cuevas was not at the press conference.

Defense lawyer Jose Roy III had to apologize to indignant senators during yesterday’s resumption of the impeachment trial.

“I don’t want to let this pass without saying anything because the integrity, credibility and independence of individual senators as well as the honor of the Senate sitting as an impeachment court are at stake here,” Estrada said.

“If you believe this story, that is up to you. But when you faced the media and passed this story on to the public with little more than your faces to back you up, then you have crossed the line and you are all wholly accountable for attempting to besmirch the reputation of this institution, which has always stood as a bastion for democracy, truth, decency, and integrity,” he added.

He challenged the defense panel to name its source or sources of information regarding the alleged bribe offer.

In a statement, the lawyers of Corona claimed having received information that Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., acting on behalf of the President, offered P100 million in projects to each senator in exchange for his or her decision to defy an SC temporary restraining order on a subpoena on Corona’s foreign currency deposits with the Philippine Savings Bank.

Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said other courts, including the SC, would have cited the defense lawyers for contempt.

“It’s not the fault of the senator-judges, this is precisely the system. Go ahead, engage in a trial by publicity with the prosecution. That is our democracy, that is our system. We will try to restrain both sides. But why do you have to include the referees (senator-judges) by coming out with these intrigues,” Cayetano said, addressing Roy of the defense team.

“That is a terrible allegation. But that is not the allegation we made. What we said was that we received information, that there were offers, we never meant to taint the integrity of the senators,” Roy said in response.

“We apologize if our statement was not clear. We did not intend to imply that you were bribed or that you received one. This was not our intention,” he added in Filipino.

But Cayetano was unconvinced. “Isn’t it an insult to us to even have to deny, that we are susceptible to bribes? You put us in that situation,” Cayetano said.

“In hindsight, perhaps you can view it that way. We beg your indulgence, that was not our intention,” Roy said.

Roy said that they had little choice but to hold the press conference after they received information regarding the alleged bribe offered last Saturday afternoon while they were meeting with Corona.

The impeachment court granted a motion from Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV that the defense lawyers be made to explain why they should not be cited for contempt for raising the bribery allegation. Roy said they would file their response by Friday.

Sen. Franklin Drilon sought confirmation from Roy if the Chief Justice had indeed promised to open his bank account in due time.

Roy said Corona did make such promise and that the defense is ready to present the bank accounts to the impeachment court.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III gave Roy a chance to retract his statement just in case he made a mistake. “The Chief Justice has informed us and authorized us to announce that he will disclose the bank accounts himself at the appropriate time,” Roy said.

Contemptuous

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the allegation was “contemptuous,” adding that their accusers in the defense team should reveal their sources.

“It really is offending to the senators because it is as if they are saying that we’re a bunch of people for sale, that P100 million is dangled before us and this will influence our decision on whether or not to defy the TRO (temporary restraining order of the Supreme Court),” Lacson said.

“If that’s their way of preempting the senators then that’s contemptuous because it will affect the decision of some if not most of the senators,” Lacson said.

“That’s my humble submission to the body, that they name their sources. We can force them under pain of being cited for contempt. That’s really contemptuous to the impeachment court,” he said.

“As one senator who has consistently refused P200-million pork barrel allocation year after year, I categorically declare that what the defense team said about P100-million offer to senator-judges is pure rubbish and nothing more,” Lacson said.

Drilon said the allegation was also insulting to President Aquino who had never been known to offer bribes to legislators, unlike the previous administration. He said the defense lawyers’ allegation, made in a press briefing, was a violation of the code of ethics among lawyers.

He said it’s now up to the impeachment court led by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to decide on what to do with Corona’s lawyers who raised the allegation.

Pimentel said that while the allegation was “contemptuous,” parties involved should maintain sobriety.

“If they did this to the Supreme Court they would automatically be cited for contempt,” Pimentel said.

Sen. Joker Arroyo also appealed for calm and said he hoped there was no truth to the allegation. “I don’t even get my pork barrel,” he said.

Arroyo added that the people should listen first to the debates on the TRO at the SC before taking any drastic move. “That’s the time when the people act… that’s why it’s a TRO – it is not permanent. The SC so far prejudiced nobody,” Arroyo said.

“The Senate should obey the TRO, otherwise people might think that just because they don a toga they have become supermen or super girls of a Super Senate and that they are infallible and become almighty,” he said.

Arroyo also appealed to Malacañang to refrain from making public pronouncements regarding the impeachment case.

“Malacañang should have a hands-off policy… they should be neutral,” Arroyo added. “Developments are getting absurd and ridiculous. The decent thing to do is for the Senate to obey the TRO. The Senate already obeyed the TRO when it suspended (last week) the discussion on the foreign deposits.”

Senators Francis Pangilinan, Gregorio Honasan and Ralph Recto also dared the defense panel to name names.

“I have not spoken to Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa. And I cannot be bribed,” Recto said.

Pangilinan called the allegation “old hat.”

“In my 11 years in the Senate, I hear that repeatedly, whether for Cha-cha, or for key pieces of legislation, lumang tugtugin na yan (It’s an old tune),” Pangilinan said.

Setting stage for walkout

House prosecutors said that in raising the bribery allegation, the defense team was setting the stage for a walkout.

“It’s a declaration of war on the Senate intended to blackmail the senators into voting to abandon their subpoena on CJ Corona’s dollar accounts. Right from the start, they have been trying to discredit the impeachment court and senator-judges,” Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said.

“They are trying to lay the ground for walking out. They were hinting that they will not accept a Senate decision to implement the subpoena because of the bribery,” he said.

In 2001, prosecutors walked out of the impeachment trial of then President Joseph Estrada after 11 senator-judges voted to suppress evidence, sparking the Edsa 2 people power that ousted Estrada.

Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II called the bribery allegation “kwentong barbero (tall tale).”

“By the defense lawyers’ own admission, it’s hearsay. It’s meant to pressure senator-judges into deciding issues in their favor. This is contemptuous at the very least,” he said.

He said the prosecution would accept a Senate decision to comply with the SC restraining order on the examination of Corona’s dollar deposits.

“Even without those accounts, we already consider the evidence very strong to prove our charge that the Chief Justice did not report a big part of his wealth in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN),” he said.

“Even if the senators defy the SC ruling, how would it affect the banking industry? The Chief Justice is the only one facing impeachment. Are there businessmen who are afraid of having their dollar accounts open when they are not being impeached?” Gonzales said. “People power, bank runs all of these are designed as scare tactics.”

Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, a prosecution spokesman, said the bribery claim is a “diversionary tactic intended to divert people’s attention away from the peso and dollar deposits of the Chief Justice.”

He said the prosecution exposed in last week’s trial Corona’s peso accounts in Philippine Savings Bank and Bank of Philippine Islands that held more than P31 million as of Dec. 31, 2010.

“He did not declare most of his deposits in his 2010 SALN as he reported ‘cash and investments’ amounting only to P3.5 million. That was the big story until the weekend. So they tried to cover that up with this bribery tale,” he said. “They are laying the basis for a mistrial. They are conditioning the mind of the public.”

Lead prosecutor Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. of Iloilo said the bribery allegation “was very irresponsible.”

“Respondent Chief Justice is trying to demonize the executive (branch) and blackmail the Senate to vote in their favor as part of their mind conditioning strategy,” Tupas said. “Respondent has no respect for the constitutional process of impeachment, the Senate impeachment tribunal and the senators.”

Prosecution spokesman Rep. Miro Quimbo of Marikina said Corona’s “battery of high-priced lawyers took hostage the Senate and the entire impeachment proceedings in his desperate attempt to prevent the opening of his dollar bank accounts.”

“Using rumors and hearsay evidence, which ironically they had been opposing regularly throughout the trial, CJ Corona’s lawyers practically put a gun on the senator-judges to scare them. The timing could not have been more suspicious as the senators were about to decide in a caucus whether to go ahead and open the CJ’s dollar bank accounts,” he said.

He said the defense lawyers’ bribery allegation “is meant to discredit the entire Senate impeachment court and all decisions it will be making in the next few days in their desperation to prevent the disclosure of the bank accounts.”

“Are those accounts so substantial that they want to prevent their opening? They are already conditioning the minds of the public to cast doubt on the independence of the Senate,” he said.

“We pray that the Senate will not be swayed by these reckless and malicious imputations coming from the defense. It is our hope that the constitutional proceedings happening in the Senate will continue until its conclusion. Let the truth come out,” he added. 

“In order to condition the minds of the public, not only the senator-judges, it (defense) attacks the integrity of the senator-judges… This is what the defense panel is thinking of doing in the next couple of days,” Quezon Rep. Erin Tañada said.

Meanwhile, former Rep. Joel Villanueva of the party-list group Citizens Battle Against Corruption, who now heads the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, denied that the supposed P100-million bribe to senator-judges would come from his agency. He called the allegation “preposterous.”

“TESDA has recently received the ISO Certification, which means quality and integrity in its programs. Please do not drag the agency into this senseless controversy,” he said.

Palace’s dare

Malacañang, meanwhile, dared lawyers of Corona to prove their bribe allegation.

“He who alleges must prove that there is P100 million. They alleged that, so they should prove the same. It is not our obligation to prove their charge,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

“There have been loose talks going around and these are just diversionary tactics to muddle up the issue away from the culpability of the chief justice,” he said.

He also said that to his knowledge, only two senators – Drilon and Manuel Villar – had recently visited Malacañang, not to personally talk to President Aquino but to attend public functions. But The STAR saw Alan Peter Cayetano, Angara and Drilon at the Palace during the visit of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Lacson went to Malacañang last Jan. 24 to greet Assistant Secretary Rey Marfil of the Presidential Communications Operations Office on his birthday. It was not known, however, whether the ex-PNP chief met with Aquino.

Ochoa, for his part, dismissed the bribery allegation as “unsubstantiated and unattributed.”

“The honorable members of the Senate have shown that they are more than capable of making the decisions necessary to ensure that the Chief Justice receives a fair and impartial trial,” Ochoa said.

President Aquino himself shrugged off the defense lawyers’ allegation and said it’s they who need to do some explaining.

“You know, before they did nothing but humiliate the prosecuting panel. Now that they lost confidence that they can beat up the prosecutors. That’s all that this (accusation) says. The situation is different now,” Aquino said in an ambush interview after leading a command conference at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Quezon City.

“So maybe I should not dignify such kind of an accusation. And here in the Philippines, maybe these veteran lawyers forget, before you accuse you have to present your evidence,” Aquino said.  With Christina Mendez, Jess Diaz, Delon Porcalla, Paolo Romero, Helen Flores, Mayen Jaymalin, Aurea Calica