MANILA — The House of Representatives’ prosecution panel on Sunday said it will present in next week's impeachment trial at the Senate witnesses and documentary evidence, particularly the travel records of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona and wife Cristina, to prove one of their allegations in Article 3 of the impeachment case filed against the chief magistrate.

Prosecution said they will prove that the Corona couple "accepted special privileges" from the management of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) while cases involving the country’s flag carrier are still pending with the Supreme Court.

Article 3 of the Impeachment accuses the chief justice of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for his alleged "failure to meet and observe the stringent standards of the Constitution that a member of the Judiciary must be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity and independence in allowing the Supreme Court to act on mere letters filed by a counsel which caused the issuance of flip-flopping decisions in final and executory cases," among others.

Congressmen-prosecutors cited a recent resolution of the High Tribunal recalling its earlier final decision on the illegal retrenchment case filed by the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP) against PAL allegedly "by acting on a mere letter from the air carrier’s lawyer Estelito Mendoza."

House prosecutors said they will present five witnesses in connection with the PAL case, which include representatives from the Bureau of Immigration (BI), PAL, Supreme Court, Prestige Travel Agency, and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

They said the BI representative will produce and testify on the travel records of Corona and his wife "to show that he accepted special privileges from PAL management while PAL cases are pending before the Supreme Court."

The PAL representative, they said, will testify on the travel dates of the Corona couple via PAL and the corresponding seats occupied.

The prosecution will also call to the witness stand an employee of the Supreme Court who handles the official travels of the magistrates to testify on the chief justice’s trips via PAL and the type of airline tickets he purchased.

They noted that the Supreme Court often tapped the services of Prestige Travel Agency, which, according to SEC records, is owned by the family of lawyer Estelito Mendoza.

The House prosecution panel earlier said it will present over a hundred more witnesses against the chief justice in his ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate.

In its compliance with the Jan. 24 order of the Senate impeachment court, the prosecution submitted last Friday a list of witnesses and documentary evidence to be presented in the course of the trial.

The list includes Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Lauro Vizconde, members of the media, magistrates and other officers of the Supreme Court, Commission on Audit (CoA) officials, a representative of the World Bank, and doctors of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The prosecution said these witnesses will be presented to prove each and every article of impeachment filed against the chief magistrate.

Meanwhile, House Deputy Speaker and Quezon Rep. Lorenzo "Erin" Tanada III said the Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) of the chief justice and his wife, compared with the identified Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) documents, which were presented to the Senate impeachment court last week, clearly showed that the fair market value of land and condominiums the couple bought were declared "far below their acquisition cost."

Tanada, one of the spokesmen of the prosecution panel, said there were also properties worth millions which were never declared in the SALN of Corona and his wife until more than three years after.

"With all the evidence together, the prosecution has already made great strides in tackling Article 2 of the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Corona," he said. (PNA)

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