No need for CJ to sign bank waiver — lawyers

MANILA, Philippines — Since the standard form of a statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) includes the authority for the Office of the Ombudsman to look into bank records, the camp of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno yesterday rejected a call for her to issue a waiver on bank secrecy.

In a press conference in Manila, lawyer Josa Deinla, one of Sereno’s spokespersons, said the call of impeachment complainant Lorenzo Gadon for Sereno to issue a waiver was simply futile because the standard format of a SALN already includes this to allow the ombudsman to examine bank records.

Among the allegations Gadon made against Sereno is the failure to declare in her SALNs, since she was appointed to the high court in 2010, the P30 million she earned when she was still a private lawyer and one of the government counsels in the arbitration case involving the expropriation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

Her lawyers played down the allegation by arguing that she used the money to buy a “modest home and modest vehicle,” which were declared in the SALN.

The non-declaration of assets in the SALN was the same ground that led to the impeachment and ouster of the late chief justice Renato Corona in 2012, when the Senate, sitting as impeachment trial court, voted 20-3 and found him guilty of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.

Sereno’s camp also opposed Gadon’s proposal to make President Duterte a special private prosecutor if the impeachment gets to the trial stage in the Senate.

Deinla said the President is not allowed by any law to act as a prosecutor during the impeachment trial as “it will be an encroachment on the exclusive power of the House of Representatives to act as prosecutors in the impeachment trial.”

Lawyer Aldwin Salumbides added that the President has “no role in such political exercise.”

While the Senate is set to start reviewing the impeachment trial rules, Sereno’s camp does not see anything wrong with the move as it shows “good leadership” on the part of Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III.

“It only shows the ability of our senators to be pro-active. I think there is nothing wrong with preparing for such possibilities. It’s just a plan that is being set in motion as preparation. So, I think that’s good leadership,” Salumbides commented.

Also yesterday, anti-corruption watchdog Filipino Alliance for Transparency and Empowerment (FATE) accused Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez of pushing for Sereno’s impeachment and ouster because “he has an axe to grind against the Chief Justice.”

The group cited the history between Alvarez and Sereno when they were still embroiled in the cases involving Philippine International Air Terminals Company Inc. (Piatco).

“It seems that his investment in her impeachment is driven by something other than a desire to exact accountability – it seems that he is one of the people who stands to benefit from her impeachment,” FATE spokesperson Jo Perez said.

Perez recounted that the MIAA-NAIA Association of Service Contractors filed in 2001 a plunder case against Alvarez and several other government officials in connection with the NAIA Terminal 3. She also recalled that Alvarez awarded the contract to Piatco when he was secretary of Department of Transportation and Communications during the Arroyo administration.

In 2007, Sereno testified and executed an affidavit before the Sandiganbayan in another case pertaining to the NAIA 3 controversy. She said then that the Piatco contracts were “grossly disadvantageous to the government.”

Meanwhile, the Moro Defense for Democracy Alliance, a group of Muslims in Mindanao, rallied behind Sereno and called for the dismissal of the impeachment complaint.

The group described Gadon as a “suspicious and dangerous person.”