The Philippine Online Chronicles

The Corona impeachment trial is entering its third week and things are going at a slumberous pace.

The prosecution revealed to the Senate Court the list of witnesses that they will be presenting in relation to the impeachment case of Chief justice Renato Corona. It’s an eye popping 100 witnesses!

That many number of witnesses is certainly going to take a long time to go through.

100 witnesses

The list includes, journalists, clerks, five Supreme Court justices and even Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. It’s a who’s who of the legal, real estate and journalism world. Seems like anyone who has ever crossed paths with the Chief Justice, as well as anyone who has been involved during the Arroyo administration will be called to the trial.

The associate justices and other people from the Supreme Court were even listed as hostile witnesses. Even the doctors of Arroyo are witnesses, Dr. Juliet Gopez-Cervantes, and Dr. Mario Ver. A World Bank official may even grace the halls of Senate to testify as to how World Bank funds were misused by the Supreme Court.

To top it all off, the prosecution reserves the right to add to the list of witnesses as deemed necessary as the trial progresses.

In contrast, the defense panel is only preparing 25 witnesses to help the case of the Chief Justice.

Is it an overkill?

Why are there so many witnesses? Aren’t some of these witnesses redundant? Some witnesses will probably just corroborate what another witness will already say. There are only 8 articles of impeachment.

As it is, the articles of impeachment are being tackled in various order, jumping from article 2 to article 3. Who can forget what happened on week 1, when the prosecution presented article 2 before article 1.

Some witnesses are even supposed to testify on more than one article of impeachment.

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Rearranging the sequence

The prosecution may even end up rearranging the sequence of presenting the evidence regarding the articles of impeachment yet again to accommodate the number of witnesses.

This does show that the senators are allowing the prosecution team some leeway and consideration to enable them to present their case in a thorough manner. Seems like Tupas is getting what he wanted.

However, if the prosecution asks to have to order changed again, it may once again blow the top of some senators and they may once again get a dressing down.

Oh my God!

That was the response of the Senate President when he saw the length of the witnesses to be presented.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has asked that the prosecution panel trim down the witnesses. A hundred witnesses is a lot of people and will use up a lot of time! The trial is already moving so slowly, so to have to drag a hundred people to take the stand will take several months before each one has been examined and cross-examined. Even at three witnesses a day at four days of trial a week, it will take over eight weeks to get through to everyone.

Think about it. Each witness presented will go through a question and answer portion by the prosecution, defense and all the senator judges present, who happen to get about a minute of floor time. Obviously, the senators take much longer asking their questions and getting their answers. That’s not even counting the time it will take for them to think about their answers, the objections raised by either side as well as the presentation of evidence relating to the witness.

So much for getting the case in time for the Holy Week break.

Three witnesses on Day 8

Finance Director of Megaworld Corp., Giovanni Ng was also a witness who testified regarding the Corona property. However, the defense team objected to the testimony of Giovanni Ng during the questioning of the prosecution, since many of his answers were based on hearsay.

Constante Caluya is the eight witness of the case. Caluya is the register of deeds of Makati City. FBDC Officer Ancieto Bisnar Jr. testified on the first day of the third week of the trial. He is the ninth witness for the prosecution.

These witnesses were asked to testify to prove article 2 and article 3. They testified regarding the properties of Renato Corona.

Too many cooks

There are way too many people on this case. There’s the defense team comprising a former Supreme Court justice and top legal minds of the country, the prosecution comprising private prosecutors and a number of associates, 24 senator judges, 100 prosecution witnesses and 25 defense witnesses.

All these people are working together to decide the fate of one man.

So much waste

Who even knows how much this case is costing taxpayers a day? This is not to mention that laws, bills and other matters of concern that have been set aside in order for the senate to focus on the impeachment trial.

The taxpayers are footing the bill for this trial of the decade. Let’s hope the prosecution doesn’t waste anyone’s time or money in trying to go after one man.

Needed but don’t go overboard

As long as the witnesses presented are relevant and will provide credible testimony, then the prosecution should by all means present whoever can help their case. Also, as long as the correct witness is presented to testify regarding the correct article of impeachment, then it should be interesting to see what new revelations will be shown.

This case clearly shows that the burden of proof is on the prosecution rather than the defense team. This is why we will probably see hundreds if not thousands of documents relating to the trial. This is the reason why the prosecution probably feels that they need to bring in 100 people to prove their case.

The number of witnesses shows just how far the allegations go. At the same time, it can also be construed as a fishing expedition by the prosecution.

Relevance is needed, whether it is presenting a witness or a document. Otherwise, it is a waste of time. We can bypass a bunch of technicalities and just focus on the meat of the matter as long as everyone stays on track.

Kudos to Senator Enrile for keeping this concise, or as concise as possible.

Let’s see what the other witnesses have to say.

Screencap from PTV Philippines livestream video.