VACC obtains documents for Sereno impeachment

MANILA, Philippines - The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution Inc. (VPCI) received yesterday afternoon certified true copies of several documents needed in the filing of an impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

VACC founding chairman Dante Jimenez was accompanied by lawyers in receiving the documents from the Supreme Court (SC)’s Clerk of Court.

“I thank the SC from the bottom of my heart, for being very transparent to us victims of heinous crimes and corruption because we feel that the SC has now shown (its) transparency in this matter,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez, however, admitted that up until yesterday afternoon, no member of the House of Representative was willing to endorse the impeachment complaint.

“As I said even before, endorser will probably follow. Out of the 290-plus lawmakers, I am pretty sure there would be one soul (who would) say what we have filed is really reflective of what the other justices perhaps feel because there should be a process. It is not really easy to file an impeachment case against the Chief Justice,” Jimenez said, adding that this is the first time that the VACC has done so.

The SC last Aug. 8 granted the release of documents, except the copy of the memorandum dated July 10, 2017 issued by Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro.

The SC approved the groups’ requests for certified copies of the documents, including:

• the Resolution the SC supposedly adopted on Nov. 27, 2012 creating the Judiciary Decentralized Office (JDO) and reopening the Regional Court Administration Office (RCAO) in Central Visayas;

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

• De Castro’s Memorandum to the Court dated December 2012, seeking the recall of Sereno’s administrative order creating the new JDO and reopening the RCAO; and

• Resolution creating the Needs Assessment Committee to determine the need to decentralize the functions of the SC in support of its power of administrative supervision over lower courts.