SENATE Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano yesterday stressed that it is their role to see to it that the truth comes out in the impeachment trial against Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

This is how the senator-judge defended himself and other members of the impeachment court from criticisms of being biased.

Cayetano said that although senator-judges have an obligation to be impartial, they must also make sure that the truth comes out in the impeachment trial.

“Dito po, ang obligasyon ng judge is not only to be politically-neutral and impartial, trabaho rin ng senator-judge [ang] lumabas ang katotohanan. So hindi pinag-uusapan dito ang civil o criminal penalty, ang pinag-uusapan dito, ’yung inaalis -- dapat bang hindi alisin o dapat bang alisin,” he said.

Cayetano, Franklin Drilon, and five other senator-judges have been accused by two lawyers of bias for their line of questioning during the first week of the Corona trial.

He said senator-judges will be the ones criticized by the public if the truth does not come out, thus affecting the outcome of the trial.

“So ang problema, ’pag may ebidensiyang hindi lumabas, [at] isyu hindi naklaro at [ito’y] kasalanan ng korte, not necessarily ng defense o prosecution but hindi rin kasi naging aktibo ang senator-judges, sino ang sisisihin?”

He added that this controversy over the alleged partiality of senator-judges emerged because the impeachment court was too technical during the first week.

House prosecutors confident

Meanwhile, the 11-man House prosecution panel expressed strong confidence that the Senate Impeachment Court will be guided by the “search for truth” rather than legal technicalities in dealing with the impeachment case against Corona.

Marikina City Rep. Miro Quimbo, spokesman for the prosecution panel, said they expect the senator-judges to guard the impeachment proceedings against the “whims and caprices” of defense lawyers, who are out to raise all sorts of objections just to prevent the truth from coming out.

“Among lawyers, we were always taught that if you want to hide something, use all technicalities that you can raise to prevent its disclosure,” Quimbo said, as he pointed out how the defense vigorously objected to the prosecution’s presentation of Corona’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) and the titles and deeds of sale to his undeclared real estate properties.

Enrile explains

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile explained that objections and motions from the defense panel do not mean they want to delay the process.

The Senate president’s reaction was in due respect to Senator-Judge Panfilo Lacson who wants to file a motion against further objections and questions of the defense panel on the technicalities in the proceedings.

Enrile also believes that the standards for making judgment on the case will be based on evidence.

This is how he will judge the case but as to other senator-judges he wouldn’t know it.

He further explained that the impeachment case is a “sui generis” or unique or a class by itself.

Honasan asks public

Senator Gregorio Honasan is asking the public to give his colleagues “the benefit of the doubt” over accusation that some of them have shown bias against Corona.

“I ask the public to give the senator-judges the benefit of the doubt; it is too early to jump into conclusion because we have only so far concluded one week of trial,” Honasan told People’s Tonight in a telephone interview.

With reports from Paul M. Gutierrez & Ryan Ponce Pacpaco