The Senate, sitting as the impeachment court of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, may extend the impeachment trial up to Friday, depending on the testimony that the chief magistrate would give beginning Tuesday.
"The Friday extension will be considered in a caucus that will be called on Thursday noon," Senate Majority Leader-judge Vicente Sotto III said in an interview a few hours before the 2 p.m. impeachment trial where Corona will testify for the first time since it started last January 16.
The Senate holds impeachment trial from Monday to Thursday only and reserved Friday for filing of motions by both the prosecution and the defense panels.
"That is the reason why we have caucus on Thursday, because there might be things that may arrive in the next two days," Sotto said.
He, however, is hoping that the senator-judges will be able to listen to the closing argument of both panels and "the court may render it's decision at soonest possible time."
Earlier, Senate President and presiding officer Juan Ponce Enrile said the Senate has set a deadline to render the verdict on or before May 31, in time for the sine die adjournment of Congress on June 7.
Sotto said the Senate President will announce the results of the caucus held last Monday before the court will proceed for the much-anticipated testimony of Corona regarding the alleged 82 dollar accounts which Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales revealed last week.
"The motions or privilege motions of the senators during the last impeachment trials, we will be announcing the decision taken up in the caucus. The Senate President has his suggestion, mostly were carried by the body. So, he will announce it before the start of the impeachment trial today," he said.
Sotto said the Senate President will announce also the court decision on the order to defense hostile witness Harvey Keh to explain why he should not be cited for contempt for trying to influence the presiding officer after submitting documents relating to the alleged dollar accounts of the chief justice.
He, however, said the Senate did not tackle the motion of Senator-judge Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III to vote again on the Supreme Court's temporary restraining order (TRO) that stopped the Senate impeachment court from tackling the dollar accounts of the chief magistrate.
"The issue of the TRO by Senator Pimentel will not be taken up, because it might preempt the testimony of the respondent, so it was not tackled," Sotto explained.
Voting 13-10, the court had earlier made a decision to honor the TRO petitioned by the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) where Corona has allegedly foreign currency deposits.
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