SC grants release of docs for impeachment complaint vs Sereno

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court en banc on Tuesday approved the request to release certified documents meant to support the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

The SC magistrates granted the request of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution Inc (VPCI), who last week filed an impeachment complaint against Sereno before the House of Representatives.

SC Public Information Office chief and spokesperson Theodore Te said the justices approved the released of the certified copies of six documents:

1. En Banc Resolution in A.M. 12-11-9-SC supposedly adopted on Nov. 27, 2012 creating the Judiciary Decentralized Office and re-opening the Regional Court Administration Office in Central Visayas

2. Subsequent En Banc Resolution recalling the aforementioned A.M.12-11-9-SC

3. Sereno’s memorandum on the appointment of lawyer Solomon Lumba as Chief Justice Staff Head II

4. Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio’s letter on the withdrawal of his signature in the appointment of Solomon Lumba as Chief Justice Staff Head II

5. Memorandum to the Court en banc dated December 2012 of Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro seeking the recall of Sereno’s administrative order creating the new Judiciary Decentralized Office and re-opening the Regional Court Administration Office in Region 7 or Central Visayas

6. En Banc Resolution creating the Needs Assessment Committee to determine the need to decentralize the functions of the Supreme Court in support of its power of administrative supervision over lower courts

Te said VACC and VPCI requested for seven documents but the court will not release the seventh document, which contains De Castro’s memorandum to the court en banc dated July 10, 2017.

In her memorandum, De Castro called for the review of Sereno’s administrative orders regarding the following matters:

• The appointment of lawyer Brenda Jay Mendoza in June 2016 as chief of the Philippine Mediation Center Office under Philippine Judicial Academy by mere memorandum, which was not referred to the Court en banc for its consideration.

• Frequent foreign travels and grant of allowance to lawyer Maria Lourdes Oliveros and other Office of the Chief Justice staff purportedly with funding support from host organizers of the travel as approved by the Sereno and two division chair persons

• Delays in filling up the post of SC’s deputy clerk of court, chief attorney, and two positions for assistant court administrator, which were supposedly issued without approval of the court en banc

The complainants requested certified copies of the documents after House Majority Floor Leader Rudy Fariñas advised VACC lawyer Lorenzo Gadon to verify attachments in his impeachment complaint against Sereno before it can be endorsed by the members of the House of Representatives.

“I advised him to get true copies of the SC orders or circulars that he is alleging to be parts of his causes of action,” Fariñas last week said in a statement.

Fariñas earlier said “newspaper reports are not authentic records.”

The VACC and VPCI’s complaint was filed last August 2 without indicating any endorsement from a member of the House of Representatives.

VACC founder and president Dante Jimenez said he is hopeful that one of the 294 members of the House of Representatives would endorse their complaint.