Prosecution terminates evidence presentation. Drops articles 1, 8, 4, 5, 6 in impeachment complaint!

The impeachment prosecution team has terminated the presentation of evidence today in the face of the supreme court decision not to allow its justices or any officers of the court to participate in the process. The supreme court said that the court has internal rules that will not allow the participation of their officials and personnel.

From the onset, the prosecution was already castigated for passing an imperfect verified complaint from congress which was seen as full of general statements and lacking in evidenciary weight. On several occasions as well, senator judges called the attention of prosecutors to come to trial prepared. Prosecutor Farinas also admitted that he did not sign the impeachment complaint because he knew it had many flaws. Two congressmen prosecutors were also found lying when they could not explain the existence of the fake PS Bank document that had caused the Senate to issue the PS Bank a subpoena. Lastly, the prosecution relied on the dissenting opinion of Justice Cereno, but was found that they had never invited her to be a witness for the prosecution. Only in the morning of Feb 28 did they actually send an official invitation.

The prosecution was hoping for the Senate to issue a subpoena to Cereno, depending on the impeachment courts power. However, Presiding Judge Enrile noted that they are conducting the trial by using the power of the court to subpoena evidence or witnesses that they should have already had prior to the trial. The Supreme Court reiterated its judicial right not to allow any of its justices, officers or employees to attend the trials.

Despite claims by the prosecution that they are ending on a strong note, this is highly suspect because of the above circumstances. What was evident was that they were relying on the impeachment court to make their case for them which some astute senator judges have already identified and uncovered.

Today, impeachment Articles 1, 8, 4, 5 and 6 were dropped by Tupas and the prosecution team where the presiding judge asked them to submit to the court an official notice that they are finally dropping these articles from the impeachment charge. This bolsters the claim that they no longer had any evidence to present.

Recent surveys saw that the people where beginning to doubt the motives of the prosecution and that the public is turning against them. This due to the despicable way they were conducting the trial and also because of the President’s evident bias. Surveys conducted by allies of the prosecution saw public sentiment turning against the prosecution and this was shown by Belmonte to the prosecution team. Likewise, the INC and interfaith rally on the 29th forced the hand of the congress leaders to shorten the presentation of the articles which they had no evidence on to begin with. Enrile ended the manifestation of the prosecution by saying: ” Are you saying that you will stand and fall on the 3 articles and what you have presented and dropping the the other 5 articles? Are you sure? You are Sure?” Tupas replied yes.

Was this just really a fishing expedition?

Banal untruth of the small lady story!

Now we are finally getting somewhere in the “small lady” story where a spurious document under question was used to subpoena banks officials in the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. It seems that a conspiracy to deceive the Filipino public was undertaken by the Prosecution panel in order to get the bank accounts opened and bring officials to court.

Big Man Congressman Rey Umali, a former customs deputy under the Arroyo Presidency, is under fire for lying to the impeachment court in saying that a small lady passed on the documents to him. Congressman Umali, who is also a Prosecutiion Panel member is being castigated publicly for the small lady lie, this after PS Bank Manager Tiongson revealed that she was visited by Congressman Bolet Banal of Quezon City and revealed the same suspect document to her and asked her assistance to verify the existence of Corona’s PS Bank Accounts.

Tiongson in her testimony stated that Banal went to the Katipunan branch of PS Bank and showed her the documents which were used by the prosecution to request for the subpoena duces tecum ad testificandumn issued to PS Bank officials. Banal for his part, an official in the prosecution impeachment secretariat, confirmed that he visited Tiongson. According Banal. a Liberal Party member since 2002, he received the fake documents when it was left in his gate.

Now, between the 2 Congressmen, the little lady lie already unravels. Congressman Umali claimed it was given to him in the Senate while Congressman Banal says it was left in his garage gate. How they will piece the 2 contradicting stories will be another tale of lies.

Here is how it may go in the succeeding days. Congressman Umali, who perfected the art of evasion in the customs bureau under GMA will claim that he met the small lady in the Prosecution Secretariat in the Senate because that is the only area where there are no CCTV Cameras, they think. They will say that Congressman Banal brought the small lady in after she finally approached Banal in person to own the documents. Meanwhile they will look for some brave soul to become the small lady. Someone who is not afraid of being prosecuted for violating the bank secrecy laws of the Philippines. She may even be a Congresswoman and claim parliamentary immunity from suit just to put a cap to this sordid affair. The Senators will not be pleased.

Deflection is already being used by the publicity managers of the prosecution by saying that because of this, the truth about the bank documents was unearthed. This is also followed up by Legal opinions from the likes of Dean Amado Valdez who is anti-Cuevas and who himself has ambitions of becoming a Justice in the Supreme Court. The President, much as he did today, will go on the attack and take the tack that the public should focus on the true issue which is corruption while the liberal party Senators continue to take up his bidding in the trial.

Word has it that because of the ineptitude of the prosecution team and magnitude of deception, they were castigated in a confidential liberal party meeting held a few days ago.

Senator Enrile meanwhile is trying to ferret out the truth by grilling the PS Bank officers on their measures of securing the bank documents of Corona. Bank President Garcia meanwhile explained that they transferred to the PS Bank main office all the related documents of Corona after the visit of Banal to its Katipunan office.

The Prosecution team led by Tupas knew something was amiss that is why they never wanted Tiongson to be their witness. Poor Girl was probably afraid she would meet the maker soon if she told the truth about the Banal visit that was why she may have been so evasive at the onset of her questioning. It was also revealed that some Liberal Senators had been pressuring George Ty, owner of Metrobank the mother company of PS Bank to reveal the documents officially prior to the trial itself.

Instead of covering up for the lies and the deceit, the President should castigate his people for undertaking such an act akin to the Watergate scandals that brought down Nixon. How can an act like this be perpetuated by law makers themselves, when they threaten, cajole and lie to the public just to follow the President’s whims.

Don’t get us wrong, we Filipinos want the truth as well. But we want it in a way that will not insult our intelligence or the moral fiber of this nation. Let the search for truth be done in a lawful manner where our constitution is respected and the rights of citizens held high.

If we let these shenanigans and deceitful acts go unpunished, if we allow our lawmakers to violate the law with utmost impunity and disregard for it, if we allow ourselves to become sheeps once again, we might just end up in another dictatorship – a fascist Presidency that controls all 3 branches of government with ultimate power to trample over our rights.

So is the small lady story true?

Small Lady, Big Congressman, Huge Mistake!

The “Small Lady” story has been hounding the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona as the Senate seeks to find out if the documents submitted by the prosecution, and whose source is the small lady, is a fake. Lawyers for PS Bank and the President of PS Bank stated that the documents are not the same, contain alterations and are PEKE or local vernacular for fake. Presiding Judge Juan Ponce Enrile has insisted however that they bring the original document to compare the documents to those presented by the prosecution panel and attached to the subpoena.

Several Senators have berated the prosecution panel for the allegedly fake document and their submission of this to the impeachment body without any prior sleuthing on their part. Big Man Congressman Rey Umali has continued to stick to the small lady tale even as the CCTV Senate Cameras did not find any footage of the actual transfer of documents from the small lady to the big congressman.

This story has been determined as a huge mistake in terms of making the impeachment process faster. Questions of law on evidence and a TRO from the Supreme Court has damaged the prosecution case indubitably. As they try to solve this snag, the prosecution has changed their position by publicly saying that the accounts of Corona has been verified by the PS Bank President despite of questions on its authenticity.

The Senate impeachment court will be hearing more from the PS Bank today on the fake document issue. On another note, there are some PS Bank customers who have claimed that their accounts have been tampered and are filling cases against it.

The Big Congressman through his small lady story may just be a huge mistake for the impeachment court, the prosecution and the banking industry!

Liberal Party Senators want Mistrial in Corona Impeachment.

Senator Judges from the Liberal Party have gone on a publicity onslaught stating that the Defense Panel is using a strategy to cause a mistrial in the Corona Impeachment proceedings. Senator Osmena stated that the Defense are laying the basis to cause a mistrial. This after the prosecution was publicly admonished by Presiding Judge Juan Ponce Enrile for using questionable and fake documents to have the bank accounts of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

These 4 Senator Judges are Franklin Drillon, Francis Pangilinan, Senator Guingona and Senator Osmena. All 4 have been seen as biased for the prosecution and towing the President’s wish for the impeachment of the Chief Justice. Drillon is often seen pursuing questions and conducting his own trial when the Prosecution team is stumped by former Justice Serafin Cuevas or the Presiding Judge.

The accusation leveled by the 4 Senators is a Publicity tactic to counter the huge negative impact caused by the purported use of fake documents by the prosecution team.

If there were to be a mistrial, the reasons would be simple:

1. A flawed verified complaint from the Congress that is full of general statements – where are the 45 properties?
2. Incompetent Prosecution Team – ill prepared for the trial.
3. The use of FAKE documents to pursue their case;
4. The clear bias of some Senator Judges.

A mistrial will only tend to favor the prosecution because they can then accuse the other Senators of being pro-Corona. An accusation of a mistrial would cover up for the use of the fake documents and the apparent lack of evidence for the impeachment proceedings to proceed.

On the other hand, a mistrial is largely unfavorable to the Defense or even the Chief Justice because doubt has already been cast on the integrity of not only Corona, but the Supreme Court itself. An analysis of the proceedings and statements of the prosecution will bear this out.

What Malacanang has ordered the prosecution to do is to go after Corona with promised explicit support from the Executive Department and its branches – and more importantly from the liberal party senators like Drillon, Osmena, Pangilinan and Guingona. This the prosecution heeded by using FAKE documents and undertaking a “fishing expedition” even if they knew very well that what they were doing was against the law.

Now how can we trust these so-called law makers when they themselves break the law. Guingona says he speaks for the people and that the people are angry! No, he does not speak for all Filipinos! And YES the people are angry for their waste of public funds to pursue their own agendas and their lack of concentration for the general welfare of the country! If Guingona had his way, Corona would have already been publicly lynched regardless of the law!

So, is there really a mistrial strategy? Maybe, but this would be the strategy of the Prosecution and their allied Senators because they believe they do not have the numbers in the Senate or do not have the constitution and law on their side. They are inflaming the public to go in the streets and take the law in their hands to remove Corona and force him to resign even when the defense has yet to present its case and evidence.

Impeachment Prosecutors use fake documents

How can now one trust the leaders of this land when impeachment prosecution lawyers, no less than Congressmen, Representatives of the people use fake documents in the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. In today’s proceedings, the branch manager of Katipunan Branch of PSBank stated under oath that the document presented by the prosecutors and used to subpoena bank documents is a fake. This cast doubt on the extent that the prosecution would go to prosecute the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

The branch manager was elusive in answering questions and often requested guidance of counsel under the direct examination of Presiding Judge, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. The witness further stated that the BSP conducted an audit examination of the PSB branch where the same documents were kept. PSBank President also testified that the document attached to the subpoena which was presented to him also seemed to be different from any of their documents.

Senate President grilled the prosecution about the “little lady” who was the source of the document according to Congressman Umali who claims that the document was given to him in the Senate Building. Senate CCTV cameras did not find any footage of the so called “little lady” handing him the documents.

Senator Judge Cheeze Escudero, put it in perspective when he said the Senate wanted to know whether they were provided a fake document by the prosecution panel and used to mislead the Senate and Public or whether the document itself was faked in the bank to lead the prosecution to more of the bank accounts of the impeached SC Chief Justice.

The revelations were astounding today given that the prosecution did not even want to have the bank manager as their witness until the lead defense panel former Justice Serafin Cuevas questioned the proceedings and questioning by Senator Judge Senator Drillon.

It was however Senator Jinggoy Estrada who stumbled accidentally on more information which he asked of the witness bank manager, leading the Presiding judge to ask more questions.

If indeed that the prosecution used fake or forged documents, then where will this impeachment trial lead to given that the reputation of the Senators have already been sullied by claims of impropriety and bribes from Malacanang. President Benigno Aquino is a staunch supporter to the impeachment process.

The question also paints a disturbing picture of how people in power in this country have used their positions to achieve their personal ambitions under the guise of truth and public interest. Will correcting a mistake or an unlawful act, catching a thief or criminal be legal or even logical if in catching him laws are disregarded and criminal acts are perpetuated in its course? Can we trust our leaders? That is the question! If the Chief Justice is guiltuy, put him in Jail! And if the Prosecution Congressmen are found to have gone on a fishing expedition and used spurious documents to ferret out the truth, let them be jailed as well!