SC allows release of Sereno records

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday allowed the release of court records and documents sought by groups seeking the ouster of Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno to bolster the impeachment complaint against her before the House of Representatives.

All 14 colleagues of Sereno in the high court voted unanimously to grant the request of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution Inc. (VPCI) for certified copies of several documents that will support their allegations against the SC chief.

Sereno, being the subject of the impeachment complaint, has inhibited from deliberations on this matter.

Among the records ordered released to VACC and VPCI were the SC’s revocation of Sereno’s order in 2012 to reopen a regional constitutional administrative office (RCAO) in Cebu without the collegial approval of the Court.

The SC also granted the release of Sereno’s memorandum for appointment of lawyer Solomon Lumba as her staff head and the subsequent letter of Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio withdrawing his signature in the said appointment over an internal issue.

But the high court rejected the request of the groups for release of the Memorandum of Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro questioning Sereno’s orders, which lacked necessary approval of the collegial Court as provided under the rules, including the appointment of a Philippine Judicial Academy (Philja) official and provision for travel allowances of her staff.

The SC explained that such a memorandum could not be released pending a resolution from the Court.

De Castro’s internal memorandum, which was reported by The STAR earlier, specifically assailed the appointment of Brenda Jay Mendoza as Philja chief of office for the Philippine Mediation Center, which she said violated their Administrative Order No. 33-2008 that required the appointment for the post to be approved by the SC collegially.

The magistrate also assailed Sereno’s grant of foreign travel allowance to members of her staff without required approval from the full court.

She revealed that the Chief Justice’s staff members were being given travel allowances even when their trips abroad were on “official time,” which should not involve expenditure of public funds.

Lastly, De Castro has questioned the “long delay” in the appointment of vacant key positions in SC pending before Sereno’s office, “which is prejudicial too the best interest of service.”

The VACC and VPCI asked the SC to provide them copies of the documents after they filed the impeachment complaint last week but no lawmaker came forward for the needed endorsement.

An impeachment complaint needs to get an endorsement of a sitting congressman before it could be referred to the House committee on justice for hearing.

In their complaint, the groups accused Sereno of culpable violation of the Constitution by issuing an administrative order creating the new Judiciary Decentralized Office (JDO) and re-opening the RCAO in Western Visayas in the absence of an authority from the Court.

They also raised the appointments of Lumba and Mendoza in the SC as basis.

The complaint also alleged that Sereno committed betrayal of public trust for sitting on the applications for the vacant posts in the Supreme Court.

Lawyer Larry Gadon was also set to file a separate impeachment complaint against Sereno, but decided to first gather more support from congressmen. 

He went to the SC yesterday to also seek release of the court records for his complaint against the Chief Justice, including copies of her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth and her psychological records with the Judicial and Bar Council when she applied for the post in 2012.