THE president of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP) yesterday failed to show any direct  evidence linking Chief Justice Renato Corona to the Supreme Court en  banc’s order recalling an earlier SC ruling on the PAL-FASAP case.

During cross examination by the defense, FASAP president Roberto Anduiza failed to show that Corona took part in an en banc resolution of the High Court recalling the Second Division’s ruling denying PAL’s second motion for reconsideration which became the basis for Article 3 of the impeachment complaint.

The defense drew an admission from Anduiza that he was not privy to the court’s internal procedures, a day after the FASAP official, under direct examination by the prosecution, alleged that Corona was behind the recall order. Anduiza earlier accused Corona of directly meddling in the PAL-FASAP case by acting on “mere letters” by PAL counsel Estelito  Mendoza.

“The way I understood you have no complaint about procedures adopted in the case (recall of second motion for reconsideration) because you  don’t know the procedure,” lead defense counsel former Justice Serafin Cuevas asked, to which Anduiza answered “Yes.”

“How about other members of the division na nagsabi nagpirma sa resolution?” Cuevas asked. Anduiza answered in the negative.

Anduiza admitted that the resolution was made unanimously by the court yet he is only singling out Corona.

This prompted Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano to ask the prosecution why only Corona is being singled out when the decision was made by the entire court.

“’Di ba buong korte nag-decision nito hindi lang si Chief Justice eh bakit siya lang (hinahabol n’yo)?” Cayetano asked.

Cuevas emphasized that what was the subject of the recall resolution is the denied second motion of reconsideration, not the merits of the case

“It was never mentioned in the recall order that it would touch on the merits of the case. In fact, the (original) decision of the court in favor  of FASAP remains untouched,” Cuevas stressed.

The defense argued that Corona did not participate in the drafting of the recall order as no magistrates signed the order since it was purely  an administrative matter.

On questioning by Sen. Koko Pimentel, Anduiza admitted it is not wrong to write the SC since some FASAP members have also written the court to seek favorable action on their pending case. Hence, Pimentel said there is, in effect, nothing wrong with the letters sent by the PAL lawyer to the court.