MANILA, Philippines — The legal team of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona has filed before the Senate impeachment court on Thursday afternoon a motion for preliminary conference in a bid for both parties to meet and determine what particular issues to prioritize during the impeachment trial proper.

In a seven-page motion submitted to the Senate legal office, Corona’s camp asked for the conduct of the preliminary proceedings on his motion for outright dismissal and the merits of his pleadings pertaining the legality of the impeachment complaint.

Senate legal counsel and designated spokesperson Ma. Valentina Cruz said that the motion meant that the chief justice’s camp wants the impeachment court to hear his so-called “affirmative defense” that delves on the Constitutionality of the eight articles of impeachment filed against him.

It can be recalled the Corona and his lawyers, in 79-page reply filed before the Senate last Monday, manifested that the “verified impeachment complaint” failed to meet the requirement of the Constitution. Then they sought for outright dismissal.

If not, they also prayed that the impeachment court enter a judgment of acquittal for all the Articles of Impeachment.

This developed as the 11-man panel in charge of prosecuting Corona accused the camp of delaying the impeachment proceeding when they filed motion for preliminary hearing on Thursday.

Marikina City Rep. Federico Romero “Miro” Quimbo, spokesperson of the House prosecution panel, expressed his disappointment, saying that Corona and his counsel have resorted to legal technicalities to delay and derail the impeachment process.

“This contradicts the earlier statements of Chief Justice Corona’s camp that they want the impeachment to proceed fast and without delay. I am surprised that they want the actual trial delayed. They have been harping that the impeachment complaint is weak,” Quimbo said in a statement. (with a report from Rio Rose Ribaya)