MANILA, Philippines - A Malacañang spokesman on Thursday said the Supreme Court cannot stop the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

This, after Corona asked the Supreme Court to declare his impeachment trial null and void after the House of Representatives supposedly violated his constitutional rights.

"The Constitution is very clear on the matter. The Senate has sole and exclusive jurisdiction over impeachment cases. The House impeaches, the Senate tries. At no point did the Constitution envision encroachment by SC over the Senate sitting as an impeachment court since the latter is meant to hold accountable impeachable officials, which include the members of the SC. In cases of impeachment trials, SC has no jurisdiction," Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

In his petition, Corona accused the impeachment court of committing grave abuse of discretion when it allowed the continuation of hearing and presentation of evidences despite not being able to meet legal requirements of a complaint.

He said the Senate also committed grave abuse of discretion for issuing the subpoena for all bank accounts requested by the prosecution. Report from Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News