“It is verified, and it was filed by at least one-third of all the members of the House in accordance with Article XI, Section 3 of the Constitution,” they said.
The complaint, they said, contains a verification executed under oath by 188 members and was duly sworn to before a duly authorized officer, the Secretary General of the House of Representatives.
The prosecutors also debunked Corona’s allegations that some of the signatories did not even read the complaint before they signed it, pointing out that the Chief Justice could not even identify the congressmen who supposedly failed to read the case.
“There is no evidence that those congressmen are withdrawing their signatures,” they said. “There is likewise no evidence that the congressmen who supposedly failed to read the impeachment complaint are so numerous as to reduce the number of the complaints to less than the required one-third of the members of the House of Representatives.”
Corona’s motion for preliminary hearing, the prosecutors said, was in reality a motion to dismiss, which is not provided for under the impeachment rules.
“The Senate rules on impeachment do not provide for such motion to dismiss,” they said, “It is plain from said rules that trial should immediately start without any delay.”
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