MANILA, Philippines - The lawyers of Chief Justice Renato Corona yesterday belied claims that their camp was “disintegrating” and vowed to work together to secure a favorable ruling from the Senate impeachment court.
“We’re together. We will win this together. There is no better
term than that,” defense panel spokesperson Rico Quicho said in reaction to reports that they are in disarray.
Defense lawyer Ramon Esguerra said rumors about the supposed rift within the Corona camp have been making rounds since the start of the impeachment trial.
“It has been like that since Day One. But if you’re asking us if we debate, we argue with one another, yes. Because we have a different appreciation/assessment of situations, circumstances,” Esguerra said.
He described as “rumor-mongers” those who insist that Corona’s camp is in disarray.
“Let them be. This will soon be over and we will be free from all these rumor-mongers,” Esguerra said.
Corona’s lawyers also belied allegations that lead defense counsel retired justice Serafin Cuevas is no longer in charge of their case.
“We all give the good justice what is due him. He’s our lead. We follow him. Even if we debate, we have differences on a particular issue, we resolve it and (he has the) last say,” Esguerra said.
“Eventually, if the Chief Justice will be consulted on any particular issue, it will be the Chief Justice’s decision,” he added.
Sen. Franklin Drilon said Thursday that Corona’s camp is “disintegrating” and Cuevas no longer has control.
Drilon said defense lawyer Jose Roy III was “running the show” for the defense panel.
“I believe that the case of the Chief Justice was made more difficult because of the imploding of the legal team. In the past few days, it was made very clear that Justice Cuevas does not have full control of the legal defense,” Drilon said.
He said Cuevas came to him to explain that he had no hand in Corona’s sudden departure from the witness stand last Tuesday.
“From that statement you could imply that somebody else was directing the show and at that precise moment Attorney Jose Roy was on television being interviewed,” Drilon said.
“I could conclude that Justice Cuevas did not know what was happening because he was trying to address the court, not knowing that his client is already leaving the room,” he added.
Drilon said the differences among Corona’s lawyers were affecting the quality of their defense.
“Indeed, the defense team was disintegrating. Therefore, this had added to the difficulties of Chief Justice Corona in presenting his defense,” he said.
Tranquil Salvador III, spokesman for the defense panel, denied this, saying Roy is just visible on television.
“That’s not true. Maybe you are just seeing him (Roy) often in video footage,” Salvador said.
Cuevas admitted on Wednesday that he tried to resign as lead defense counsel but eventually gave in to Corona’s request to stay.
He said “conflict of opinion” had prodded him to resign.
Corona, however, managed to convince Cuevas to remain as his lead defense counsel. Cuevas refused to say how the Chief Justice persuaded him to stay.