day 24. the prosecution’s request that the court subpoena justice ma. lourdes sereno to testify on her dissenting opinion (re the TRO on de lima’s watchlist order) was denied by presiding judge enrile. senator judge trillanes also withdrew his request of day 23 that justice sereno be sent questions to be answered in writing. on grounds that it would violate the doctrine of judicial privilege.
prosecutor colmenares pleaded that the feb 14 judicial privilege resolution, effectively forbidding members to testify against each other, was making it difficult for them to get witnesses, and that it might take a subpoena to make justice sereno appear in court. or something to that effect.
enrile suggested that the prosecution try inviting the justice muna, because what if the senate issued a subpoena and sereno did not comply, then malaking kahihiyan para sa senate court. and then what? cite her for contempt? it would mean a major major clash with a co-equal branch of govt that has the power to declare the senate impeachment court unconstitutional. or something like that.
senator judge joker arroyo, for his part, expressed amazement at the prosecutor’s statement re difficulty of getting witnesses from the supreme court just because the respondent is the chief justice himself.
“But you have the backing of no less than the President of the Philippines! You should have no problem getting witnesses!”
true. napa-tweet tuloy ako na medyo uncreative yata ang presidential backing for the prosecution. kung sa West Wing yan, nagapang na ng palasyo ang mga anti-corona sa supreme court at meron nang nag-surprise witness sa senate court. kumbaga, ala enrile and ramos nuong EDSA.
or maybe the palace has tried, pero talagang mas matindi lang ang firewall ng supreme court kaysa ng banking system?
as for the abs-cbn cameraman on the justice beat who took videos of sc spokesman midas marquez and of the lawyer topacio & cash, i hope it’s not true that he doesn’t understand what he was covering, not the TRO, not the cash bond, etc. i hope he was only advised to pretend that he doesn’t understand what’s going on to save him from being grilled by the defense. otherwise, medyo nakakadismaya for someone who has worked more than a decade in the country’s largest media network.
Have you encountered people among the “daang-matuwid”-crowd who are pushing a new line :
Hindi importante na peke ang ebidensiya, basta ang sinasabi ay katotohanan.
haha, no, but it would be just like them.