THE Senate, sitting as impeachment court, is hoping to render a verdict in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona by March 23, the scheduled Holy Week break of Congress.

The senator-judges start today the deliberation on the impeachment complaint filed by 188 members of the House of Representatives against Corona for his alleged violations of the Constitution.  The impeachment trial will be held from Monday to Thursday at 2 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente "Tito" Sotto III yesterday said that the Upper Chamber is ready for its role to resolve the eight articles of impeachment filed against Corona. "We should have finished the Corona trial by March 23,” he said. After the Holy Week break, Congress resumes session on May 7.

“If no verdict is reached by then uulitin namin ang proceedings when we come back but we will no longer allow further delays. After the prosecution and defense complete their summations, the senator-judges will then vote to render their verdicts on each of the eight Articles of Impeachment against Corona," Sotto said.

“Once the oral arguments on both sides are done, we will vote on the Articles one by one. If he (Corona) is found guilty on one Article, he will be removed even if he is found to be not guilty on the seven other Articles; but we would need 16 votes to convict,” he added.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile earlier described Corona's trial as an “intellectual combat” between House prosecutors, determined to remove the chief magistrate, and the Supreme Court head's defense lawyers who are dead set on securing him an acquittal.

Sotto said that the senator-judges would first conduct a closed-door caucus to resolve pending motions filed by both parties concerning the holding of the impeachment trial. He said that Corona may opt not to attend the proceedings since the impeachment trial, unlike regular court trials, does not require an arraignment where the accused is asked to make a plea of innocence or guilt.

“We will try hard to finish our Monday legislative session by 11:00 a.m. so we can hold a caucus to discuss the agenda of the Impeachment Court which we will proceed to convene at 2 p.m.,” Sotto said. “There is nothing hidden in the caucus. We will decide the motions by vote and the Court will always act as one,” he said.

Enrile, who will preside over the proceedings, is set to make a brief opening statement and then call on prosecution and defense lawyers to enter their appearances before the impeachment court. Under the Senate rules governing the impeachment proceedings, the senator-judges would be given two minutes each to direct questions to both prosecution and defense to allow other members of the Court to raise their questions during the trial.

“The procedure will always be that the Senate President will rule on the issues raised before the court. If the Senate President’s ruling would not be in conformity with the members of the Senate, we can move to put it to a vote,” Sotto said.