Submitted by: Submitted by elaineluap
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Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 07/12/2012 08:16 PM
After 43 trial days and hundreds of grueling hours of hearing, the Senate sitting as impeachment court have declared Chief Justice Renato Corona guilty.
An overwhelming majority of Senators, 20-3, voted for the removal of Corona from office, most of them noting that the top magistrate no longer deserves his post. This makes Corona the first government official to be convicted by an impeachment court.
Senators Edgardo Angara, Alan Peter Cayetano and Pia Cayetano, Franklin Drilon, Francis Escudero, Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, TG Guingona, Gringo Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, Lito Lapid, Loren Legarda, Sergio Osmena III, Kiko Pangilinan, and Koko Pimentel, Ralph Recto, Bong Revilla, Tito Sotto, and Antonio Trillanes, Manny Villar, and presiding officer Juan Ponce Enrile all have voted for Corona's conviction.
Senators Joker Arroyo, Miriam Santiago, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., meanwhile voted for Corona's acquittal.
"The Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, having tried Chief Justice Renato Corona, upon three articles of impeachment charged against him by the House of Representatives, by a guilty vote of 20 senators, has found him guilty of the charge under Article II.
"Now therefore, be it adjudged that Renato Corona, is hereby convicted of the charge against him in Article II of the Articles of impeachment, so ordered," Enrile added.
Enrile also said as he explained his vote, "there is deliberate act of excluding substantial assets."
"This is not justice, political or legal. Certainly not the law..it is only naked power, as it was in 1972," however said Arroyo as he defended his vote.
Each senator was given two minutes to explain their votes while as presiding officer, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile was last to vote.
Corona was impeached by the House of Representatives in December after 188 congressmen signed the impeachment complaint.
From the original eight, the prosecution team reduced its complaint to three articles of...