Sen. Ralph G. Recto today expressed confidence that the Senate acting as an impeachment court could conduct the trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona with dispatch so that the country could focus on putting on track its economic life.

“The impeachment trial has to be swift so that it won’t drag down the economy,” Recto said.

Recto said the soonest the Senate could dispose of the Corona case, the soonest the country could move forward to face more challenges “with the world ablaze with unfamiliar changes.”

“The US and Europe are faced with economic challenges never before seen in recent decades; the so-called Arab Spring has not simmered down in the Middle East and it’s only matter of time that the headwinds of this strife will reach our shores. So we have to start piling-up the economic sandbags,” he said.

Recto said the people are looking for immediate relief after being battered by economic storms like increases in oil prices, toll fees and soon, MRT-LRT fares and not to mention the natural-made calamities wreaked by strong typhoons.

“We cannot afford to use all our energies in the impeachment while most of us feel that they were not economically better off compared to the previous year. There is still that culprit called poverty that needs to be impeached,” he said.

Recto said regardless if Corona “is a candidate for conviction or acquittal, he deserves a speedy trial.”

“We can only appeal that Corona and his defense would not tax further the patience of our people by avoiding a prolonged trial, which the Senate, under Manong Johnny, wont allow to happen,” he said.

“The family and friends of Corona seeking retribution for the pain and humiliation caused by this impeachment process would prefer a speedy trial to clear his name,” Recto said.

The Senate is scheduled to buckle down to work as an impeachment court on Monday after convening for the first time in December last year.