MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino might have to take a dose of his own medicine and face impeachment should he try to influence senators sitting as judges in the trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) warned yesterday.
In its strongest stand on the impeachment issue so far, the country’s mandatory organization for lawyers said the President could be held liable for culpable violation of the Constitution if reports that he had attempted to get some senator-judges defy an order of the Supreme Court (SC) preventing disclosure of his dollar accounts in the bank turn out to be true.
“The Constitution provides that the Senate has the sole power to try and decide impeachment cases. Any act of the President that interferes with the exercise by the Senate of such sole power is arguably a culpable violation of that constitutional provision,” the IBP said in the statement issued through its spokesman and Northern Luzon governor lawyer Dennis Habawel.
“It is also a violation of the principle of separation of powers,” the group said.
IBP, which has been independently monitoring the Chief Justice’s trial, believes that the President may only express opinions on the ongoing proceedings but cannot personally intervene in the process nor order any of his officials to do the same.
“The mere expression of the President of his opinion that the Senate may disregard the SC TRO is protected by the freedom of speech, but if he commits acts that tend to influence the Senate to actually disregard the TRO, as in giving pork barrel projects so the senators may disregard the TRO, the President risks being impeached by Congress for culpable violation of the Constitution,” the group warned.
IBP’s statement came a week after defense lawyers bared a supposedly reliable information that Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa called some senators allegedly to transmit an urgent personal request from the President that they not honor the temporary restraining order (TRO) in exchange for P100 million in pet projects.
The President had publicly criticized the TRO issued by the SC while his spokesman Edwin Lacierda even called on the Senate not to heed the order.
The group had already took exception to a public statement of the President that Corona had lied in declaring his income in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth, saying it was a premature judgment on the part of the Chief Executive.