Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Rep. Ong: Prosecution panel should respect impeachment proceeding vs. CS Corona

TACLOBAN CITY – Members of the prosecution panel should respect the impeachment proceeding against Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona by limiting or barring themselves from announcing details of the process or on the merit of the case in the media.

Thus said Northern Samar second district Representative Emil Ong in an interview.

Ong, who is also an ally of the President, said that he agrees with the statement of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile that Rep. Neil Tupas along with other members of the prosecution panel who publicly showed some of their evidence against Corona in press briefing that they should brush up first the impeachment rules.

The impeachment case against Corona is to be handled by the Senate as an impeachment tribunal and under Section XVIII of Senate Resolution 39, it “prohibits prosecutors, senator-judges, the accused, lawyers and witnesses from “making any comments and disclosures in public pertaining to the merits of a pending impeachment trial.”

However, Ong added that he also cannot condemned his fellow legislators as they are only doing their job as members of the prosecution panel by providing the people the information that they need to know.

“The best to do is to disallow both side from talking or discussing the issue,” suggested Ong, referring to the prosecution and defense panel.

“They (Tupas and members of prosecution team) only made such statement because the defense panel in interviews belittles the case of impeachment against the Chief Justice,” Ong added.

“In order to stop this or prevent both camp from saying anything or divulging information on the forgoing process both camps should be barred and they must respect the Senate that is acting as judges for the case,” Ong added.

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