Sereno hit for skipping impeachment hearing

MANILA, Philippines — She was busy “doing the rounds of public forums” but couldn’t find time to attend hearings on her impeachment, lawyer Lorenzo Gadon said of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, whom he accused of deliberately ignoring an invitation from the House committee on justice to personally confront her accuser.

“Why is CJ Sereno skipping House hearings when she has all the time doing the rounds in public forums?” Gadon said, referring to her absence at the hearing on her impeachment by the House committee on justice last Wednesday.

“Is the CJ afraid of displaying her litigation skills or lack of it? Is she avoiding the public to feast on the spectacle of no less than the Chief Justice lacking in the basic skills of litigation – unlike any experienced lawyer?” Gadon stressed.

He added Sereno’s frequent media interviews belied claims by her lawyers that she was busy attending to her duties in the judiciary.

“CJ Sereno claims she wants to focus on her duties in the SC, but why is she everywhere else discussing her case in media interviews?” he asked.

Gadon earlier accused Sereno of turning to the public for support after failing to get it from the judiciary.

In response, the camp of Sereno argued speaking in public forums is part of the Chief Justice’s duties.

“Conducting media interviews and attending public forums, inasmuch as they would make an informed citizenry and promote the respect for the rule of law, are also duties of the Chief Justice,” said lawyer Josa Deinla, one of Sereno’s spokespersons. “Would the complainant further want to muzzle the Chief Justice in these public places?” 

After her interviews with ANC Headstart and GMA News TV’s “Bawal Ang Pasaway Kay Mareng Winnie” last Monday, the Chief Justice appeared in two forums yesterday.

She was keynote speaker at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ Pagtugon sa Hamon forum in Taguig City in the morning and was also speaker at the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ 72nd Annual Convention in Pasay City in the afternoon.

In her speech, Sereno called on lawyers to do their part in fighting impunity and human rights violations in “these dangerous times.”

She asked them not to allow themselves to be “stymied, muzzled or cowed” and that they should “let no political ambition stand in the way of standing for what is right.”

“Make your stand in such a way that no one will doubt that your hearts are with the Filipino people. Let your voices be heard clearly, as a call to our people to unite and defend the freedoms that our forefathers dearly paid with blood for,” Sereno said. – Jess Diaz