FAIR and decisive.

This is how the House prosecution panel described the Senate Impeachment Court in conducting the first week of trial of the impeachment case of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Prosecution panel spokesperson Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara said that the group was elated over the fair decision of the court in dismissing the petitions of the defense panel which are intended to delay the proceedings.

The court had junked the motion of Corona’s team to have a preliminary hearing for lack of merit and at the same time dismissed the petition to cite in contempt the prosecutors for disclosing the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Chief Justice before the start of the formal trial.

According to Angara, they will use this initial victory to ensure the conviction of Corona.

“The road for the presentation of damaging and convincing evidence has been cleared.

“We are elated and happy with the quick action by the Senate to the dilatory tactics of defense’s camp,” Angara said.

The prosecutors have already presented at least three witnesses including the SC Clerk of Court who surrendered to the court copies of the Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN) of Corona since 2002.

Based on the SALN of Corona, his assets have grown from P14 million in 2002 or the time he was appointed as Associate Justice to P22.9 million in 2010 when he was appointed as Chief Justice.

His alleged midnight appointment by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was among the articles of impeachment filed against him.

Other witnesses were officials from the Registry of Deeds who showed copies of Corona’s real estate properties in Taguig and Quezon City were most of them were undervalued.