Supreme Court justice ready to testify against Sereno

MANILA, Philippines — A magistrate of the Supreme Court (SC) is willing to testify on the impeachment charges against Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno should the trial against her proceed.

The justice, who requested anonymity so as not to preempt the expected proceedings before Congress, cited several allegations in the impeachment complaint against Sereno that involve internal matters of the high court that only insiders would be able to attest to.

“If summoned by the impeachment court, we will be compelled to testify in the trial out of respect for the constitutional process,” the justice told The STAR by phone.

The magistrate would not reveal if the testimony will support or negate the allegations raised against Sereno.

But the justice stressed that any testimony would anyway undergo test of credibility during trial.

“I don’t have any ambition to replace her (Sereno) or any agenda,” the justice said.

Earlier this month, the SC allowed the release of court records and documents sought by groups seeking the ouster of Sereno to bolster the impeachment complaint against her before the House of Representatives.

All 14 other 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 Chief Justice.

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 from the appointment over an internal issue.

The VACC and VPCI alleged that Sereno violated the Constitution when she appointed Lumba, a professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law, when the law provides that appointive government officials shall not hold another public post unless otherwise specified.

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.

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

De Castro’s internal memorandum, which was reported by The STAR earlier, specifically assailed the appointment of lawyer 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.

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

She bared 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.  

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

In their complaint, the VACC and VPCI accused Sereno of culpable violation of the Constitution by issuing an administrative order creating the new Judiciary Decentralized Office (JDO) and reopening 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.

The VACC, a supporter of President Duterte, yesterday reinforced the impeachment complaint it filed against Sereno by submitting a “substitute complaint” and certified true copies of the documents and court records which will support their allegations against the Chief Justice.

VACC president Dante Jimenez led the filing of the substitute complaint. He was accompanied by lawyer Eligio Mallari of the VPCI and former congressman Jacinto Paras. 

The new complaint was filed in the office of House Secretary General Cesar Pareja, who refused to give journalists a copy.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez yesterday bared that the leadership of the House of Representatives will deliberate and hold hearings on the impeachment complaint against Sereno. 

“There will be a committee hearing on it, especially now that the Supreme Court issued certified true copies of documents related to the allegations in the complaint,” Alvarez said in an interview with Headstart aired over ANC.

The House committee on justice handles the impeachment complaints.

Earlier, some parties reportedly found it hard to secure the documents from the SC and the Judicial and Bar Council. House leaders, including Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, told lawyer Larry Gadon that if push comes to shove, lawmakers will subpoena the alleged concealed assets and the psychiatric report of Sereno where she reportedly failed.

Gadon, an ally of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a Duterte supporter, was supposed to file a separate impeachment complaint, but opted to hold it after Fariñas advised him to make sure that the complaint complies with the “personal knowledge” requirement. 

As a matter of procedure, 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. If the signatories reach at least 97, it will be forwarded to the Senate for trial. 

So far, only the VACC and VPCI have filed an impeachment complaint against Sereno but this cannot yet be considered valid as it still has no congressman-endorser yet. — With Delon Porcalla