/ LET US NOT DESTROY OUR INSTITUTION!
MANILA, JANUARY 31, 2012 (INQUIRER) By Christian V. Esguerra - Who
wants retired Supreme Court Justice Serafin Cuevas (photo) out of the
impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona?
The 83-year-old Cuevas, who has become a sort of a rock star because of his
performance as lead defense counsel in the afternoon TV-radio spectacle before a
nationwide audience, has revealed purported efforts by Malacañang to get him out
just two weeks into the Senate trial.
Cuevas said he had been approached on a number of occasions by a lawyer to
deliver a supposed message from Malacañang.
He said he was being asked to leave the defense panel in exchange for the
withdrawal of the criminal case against Magtanggol Gatdula, the recently sacked
director of the National Bureau of Investigation.
"I was told that the President wanted me out as a bargaining chip in
the case, that they would no longer pursue it provided that I withdraw," the
counsel said in Filipino in an interview with the Inquirer in his Makati City
office on Saturday night.
Cuevas is also the legal counsel of the influential Iglesia ni Cristo (INC),
of which Gatdula is also a member. Gatdula has been implicated in the alleged
kidnapping of an undocumented Japanese woman.
Cuevas identified the emissary, supposedly a member of Malacañang's "rah-rah"
boys, but asked that his name be withheld. He said the man, his former student
at the University of the Philippines' College of Law, feared Palace
repercussions.
"I know him to be with Malacañang, (but) I'm not sure whether he's authorized
or he is doing it himself," the defense counsel said. "I don't speak with the
President anyway … I do not want to add credence to that."
Asked for comment, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a phone
interview that if Cuevas had proof, he should identify the emissary.
Palace: Identify emissary
"Let's not dwell on anonymity. He owes it to the public to identify the
person," said Lacierda, who repeated the Palace satisfaction at the way the
trial was proceeding. "The [pieces of] evidence speak for themselves," he told
the Inquirer.
Lacierda (photo) also said he saw "no causal
connection" between Cuevas and Gatdula other than that both of them were INC
members.
In the interview with the Inquirer, Cuevas said he had also been receiving
some form of "harassment" lately in connection with a couple of family-owned
buildings in Quezon City.
Days after the impeachment trial began, he said he was suddenly asked to
submit the book of accounts, supposedly for the Bureau of Internal Revenue
(BIR), to check if the right taxes were being paid.
"Why only now?" Cuevas said. "It's no small thing. It's serious. I don't know
what will follow next."
He added: "It gives a chilling effect. But I don't know if the President
knows about it. Perhaps, it's only the handiwork of people who want to look good
before him."
Holding punches
Cuevas said the inquiry into the Quezon City properties was similar to an
incident involving BIR officers shortly after he went public as a counsel for
then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, who resigned rather than undergo an
impeachment trial.
He said three BIR officers went to his law office in Salcedo Village one day
and began investigating.
"Make sure you do it right because you know how life is—today you are up,
tomorrow you may be down," he told the BIR officers in Filipino, adding that the
incident "scared away" many of his clients.
Not easy task
"If they are no longer in position, that's the time they will see what kind
of blows we will deliver," Cuevas said. "We are holding our punches. We cannot
unleash the full fury of our punch because of the existing circumstances."
He said he was unfazed by the pressure on him to quit the Corona defense
team.
So far in the trial, Cuevas has been both criticized and commended for the
way he has been defending the Chief Justice, particularly in the face of
allegations that he had amassed ill-gotten wealth, a charge not included in the
existing articles of impeachment.
Cuevas said Corona had personally asked him to serve as his lead defense
counsel. He said he and his entire family were initially against the idea given
the possible harassment that might come their way.
"It's not easy because you're up against Malacañang," he said.
President Aquino has been openly campaigning for the removal of Corona,
alleging that he was a roadblock to his reform programs and his campaign promise
to prosecute former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for
electoral sabotage and corruption.
Corona earlier fired back, saying the President was showing dictatorial
tendencies by attempting to control the judiciary. With a
report from Christine O. Avendaño
FROM ABS-CBN
'Calling journalists, justices to witness stand horribly
wrong' By Ira Pedrasa, ABS-CBNnews.com Posted at 01/29/2012 4:39 PM |
Updated as of 01/29/2012 7:25 PM
Defense: Let us not destroy our institutions
MANILA, Philippines -- A lawyer has criticized plans of the
prosecution to call to the witness stand more than 100 witnesses, including
journalists and justices of the Supreme Court.
In his Facebook account, lawyer Ted Te said: "Putting media practitioners as
well as sitting Supreme Court Justices as possible witnesses is just simply
horribly wrong. Not only does it leave the trial open to a challenge that it
was, after all, the institution of the SC itself that is now being tried, it
also opens a door that should, at the moment, remain closed."
He said bringing justices to the court also weakens the institutions put up
by the Constitution. He said the magistrates should collectively decline such a
plan.
"Similarly, calling media practitioners to testify on work product is
indicative of a short cut approach to finding the truth; much of the work that
media has done in reporting these matters is already part of the public
consciousness and may already be considered subject of the collective,
institutional and even personal knowledge of the Senate, acting as jury; there
is really no need to call media practitioners to testify," he said.
Several journalists have already asked the prosecution team not to present
them as witnesses, including Marites Vitug and Criselda Yabes.
The journalists are only two of the more than 100 witnesses that the
prosecution wants to testify in the eight articles of impeachment against Chief
Justice Renato Corona.
'Let us not drag the media into the picture'
In a separate statement, the defense also criticized the plans of the
prosecution.
The "prosecution has pierced the veil of confidentiality with the [income tax
returns], let us not drag the media and place it on the witness stand. The Media
is not on trial here. Prove your case by doing your work in research and
litigation," defense spokesperson and lawyer Karen Jimeno said.
She said the media has three basic roles, which is to inform, educate and
entertain, "even if some have gone further, they have a unique role."
The defense lawyers also took exception to the plan of the prosecution to
subpoena the magistrates.
"Is the Prosecution saying they need the other Justices to rat against the
Chief Justice and against each other on how they voted on a particular case?"
lawyer Rico Quicho asked.
Jimeno added this would step on the time-honored confidentiality in the
disposition of cases.
'Think out of the box'
Te, who is in the United States on a scholarship, also questioned why the
prosecution would need around 100 witnesses.
He said it is indicative of two things.
"It believes that its case is so weak that it needs that many witnesses to
prove something that should be, on its face, already self-evident, and it hopes
that, along the way, someone will do a Clarissa Ocampo and turn the tide
irreversibly in its favor," he said.
Ocampo was the whistle-blower who said that then President Joseph Estrada was
the one who signed the "Jose Velarde" accounts, where jueteng money was
supposedly deposited.
"Either way, it doesn't look good for the prosecution simply because
disclosing its own belief that it takes that many witnesses to prove that Corona
is unfit to continue as Chief Justice sends to the Senate the wrong
message--that perhaps the truth isn't as clear and that perhaps the doubt should
be resolved in favor of retaining him in office," Te said.
He said it's not too late for the prosecution to rethink its strategies.
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
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