The House Committee on Justice, voting 25-2 found sufficient grounds to impeach Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
The impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Larry Gadon,
accuses the Chief Justice of culpable violation of the Constitution,
corruption, other high crimes and betrayal of public trust. The committee found
the complaint sufficient in form and substance on Sept. 13. It will next
determine if there is probable cause to impeach Chief Justice Sereno. Atty. Gadon will be asked to support his
allegations through evidence and witnesses.
"The chair hereby declares… that the complaint alleges
sufficient grounds for impeachment," House Justice Committee Chairman
Reynaldo Umali said. *
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| Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno (photo credit to Manila Times) |
At least a third of the members of the House-
98 of 292 members- vote is needed to approve the committee report, this will
then constitute the Articles of Impeachment and the chief justice is impeached.
The Articles of Impeachment will be transmitted to the Senate, which
will try the case as an impeachment court.
Atty. Gadon
said Sereno violated the Constitution when she falsified orders and resolutions
of the high court, misdeclared her wealth in her Statement of Assets,
Liabilities, and Net worth (SALN), and manipulated the Judicial Bar Council,
among others.
It added Sereno
is a corrupt public official and "used public funds to finance her
extravagant and lavish lifestyle," citing the purchase of a P5-M Toyota
Land Cruiser 2017 for her personal use.
She is also
accused of using government funds to stay in luxurious hotels and bring a
"huge entourage of lawyers in her supposed official foreign trips."
Sereno
committed other high crimes, the complaint read, when she ordered Muntinlupa
judges not to issue arrest warrants against Senator Leila de Lima, who is now
detained over drug charges. She also ordered Court of Appeals justices to
question the Lower House's processes before the high court, the complaint said,
on top of not paying appropriate taxes and lying in her application for the
judiciary by overstating her credentials. *
Finally, the
complaint said the Chief Justice betrayed public trust when she
"attacked" several pronouncements of President Rodrigo Duterte -
including the declaration of martial law in Mindanao - and appointed officials
without the approval of the Supreme Court en banc.
Totality rule
The House will apply the same rule that was used when then Chief Justice
Renato Corona was impeached last 2011.
"[T]here is need for clarification and this is the reason why we
are now at the level of determining whether there is sufficient ground not only
for purposes of impeachment but to conduct further hearing as provided under
our rules," he said before the committee voted.
He said the House panel will apply the "totality rule",
suggesting the complaint should be evaluated as a whole and not by
particular allegations.
"Again, we apply the totality rule," he said, referencing the
impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2011.
"In fact, we did not go through the whole eight articles, we just
limited ourselves to about two or three and we got the former chief justice
convicted on just one ground," Umali said.
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez made a public statement that
the super majority aligned with the administration has more than enough numbers
to send the impeachment complaint directly to the Senate. *
"I want to be fair, and before we bring it there...
before it is transmitted to the impeachment court, we have to be sure that the
evidence will stand trial in an impeachment court,” he said in Filipino in a
televised interview last month.
Reports from cnnphilippines & philstar
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