Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III on Tuesday said there will be no bloc voting in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, especially for the so-called "Enrile bloc."
"The Senate president has made it very clear to us and to many others who he talked that his vote is his vote, he is not influencing anyone, he does not want to influence anyone, even the so-called Enrile bloc," Sotto told reporters.
He issued the statement after some political analysts have poined out that the so-called Enrile bloc, composed of the Senate president, Sotto, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada and Sen. Gregorio Honasan, will be crucial in deciding Corona's fate.
Sotto, however, said that Enrile told them that he will only tell them his vote if they ask and want to know. He said the Senate president hasn't told him what his vote was.
As for his own vote, he said "more or less" he knows what his decision is.
"I decided after I prayed last night, I consulted my family," Sotto said.
Vote based on conscience, evidence
Sen. Edgardo Angara, for his part, said he will base his decision on his conscience and the evidence presented during the trial.
"My decision to either acquit or convict centers on his fitness to decide as the chief magistrate. The issue of the impeachment of the chief magistrate centers on that factor," Angara said in a statement released Tuesday.
Angara's son, Rep. Sonny Angara, is one of the spokespersons for the prosecution. The elder Angara, however, has inisted that his being a senator-judge has nothing to do with his son's role in the impeachment trial.
The senators are expected to vote on Corona's case later in the day. Sixteen votes are needed to convict him.
Sotto said that if ever Corona is convicted, they will have the order drafted after the trial, which he said is basically immediately executory.
"More or less, yun ang sinasabi ng Constitution," he said.
The senator said that if ever the defense panel brings the case to the Supreme Court, it would not be their problem anymore.
"Whatever happens after is not our problem anymore unless they bring it up with us," he said. — Kimberly Jane Tan/RSJ, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
