Chief Justice Sereno: ‘Give me my day in court’

CJ Sereno: House has nothing on me

MANILA, Philippines — Embattled Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno yesterday dared her accusers to allow her to face the Senate impeachment court or admit that there is no probable cause to file an impeachment complaint against her.

Speaking at a forum before law students of the University of Baguio, her first public appearance since going on indefinite leave, Sereno said those working for her ouster should let her defend herself before the Senate. 

“I ask only one thing from the political leaders, only one thing: give me my day in the Senate impeachment court or admit that there is no probable cause,” said Sereno.

The Chief Justice believes that the accusations against her are baseless.

“If they can prove that I committed a harvest of sins against the people, why not bring it to the Senate?” she asked. 

She said the SC and the Judicial and Bar Council are being threatened with administrative and criminal cases.

Sereno reiterated her position that amid the possibility of facing the Senate impeachment court, she has no plans of stepping down as Chief Justice.

“That is also what I have been consistently saying to those who have asked me to resign – no, I will not.”

“I will give an actual account of my actions as chief justice to the people. I do not owe anyone the duty to resign. I owe the people the duty to tell my story,” she added. 

With the House of Representatives’ committee on justice wrapping up its impeachment hearing and set to vote next week, Sereno called for respect for the impeachment process. 

She also warned her detractors against resorting to “extra-constitutional” means to unseat her.

“The House committee has announced that it has already finished its proceedings. What happens next is critically important to our democracy. The only constitutional manner allowed for handling the impeachment process at the House is for it to vote on the question of probable cause in a timely manner and not to drag it further or couple it will calls for extra-constitutional help to facilitate the ouster of the Chief Justice, such as calling the SC to do the job of the Senate and House committee on justice whether by internal action of the Solicitor General and it is not, it should not be – the House should not delay already agonizingly long proceedings,” Sereno added.

The hearings at the committee on justice lasted for five months.

Sereno hopes that the SC would not be badly affected by the attacks hurled against her and that once the furor over her impeachment dies down she is hoping the SC would still be united by a common desire to serve the people and protect their constitutional rights.

She reaffirmed her commitment to fight for judicial independence. 

Sereno told the law students that in order to seize the days of glory, they should not lose hope.

“We must continue to fight and never give up and while the past few days seem to carry a dark foreboding, I say to you indeed when hope seems to be at its dimmest, that you must be at your bravest. For without moral courage the human courage is a lost cause. We simply cannot give up.”

‘7 justices mutiny’

As this developed, opposition Rep. Edcel Lagman appealed yesterday to seven justices who he said are leading a “mutiny” not to usurp the power of Congress by forcing Sereno to resign.

“It is Congress, through the separate actions of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which has the jurisdiction to impeach and remove the chief justice if warranted. The justices concerned cannot en banc preempt or usurp the jurisdiction of the Congress,” he said.

“Instead of waiting for the chief magistrate to be impeached by the House and tried by the Senate pursuant to the Constitution for alleged ‘impeachable offenses,’ the concerned justices compelled Sereno to take an indefinite leave after a failed attempt to unseat or remove her,” he said.

But Lagman did not name the seven justices. However, he said their mutiny “diminishes the respect owing to them and tarnishes their dignity even as they placed the high court in an inordinately bad light.”

“Since no less than six incumbent justices submitted to the jurisdiction of the House committee on justice when they testified against Sereno, why can they not allow the impeachment proceedings to take its course?” he asked.

“After washing dirty robes in public, the subject justices laid bare the embarrassing hostilities in the Supreme Court,” he said.

Last Tuesday, after the session of the high tribunal, Sereno’s camp announced that she was going on a 15-day wellness leave starting last Thursday so she could prepare for her projected Senate impeachment trial. She subsequently amended it to become an indefinite leave.

Due to the confusion created by the announcement from the chief justice’s camp, her colleagues issued a statement last Thursday that based on their agreement during their session, she was on indefinite leave.

During the closed-door session, some of her colleagues suggested that she should take a leave until her Senate trial is over. Others reportedly called to declare her position vacant.

The House committee on justice is expected to find probable cause to impeach her next week.

Mindoro Oriental Rep. Reynaldo Umali, committee chairman, and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez have said the House has enough evidence to send the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Lorenzo Gadon to the Senate.

But for Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, the House has failed to find solid proof to remove Sereno.

“If one is to study the supposed evidence presented during the long-drawn impeachment hearings against the chief justice, he would find that there is no sufficient ground to impeach her,” he said.

He said the justice committee hearings have been “reduced to a fishing expedition to gather evidence for complainant Gadon’s specious complaint.”

Zarate said Sereno should not resign and should take her chances in the Senate.

He added that administration allies would need the votes of 16 of the 23 senators to convict and oust her.

He pointed out that six opposition senators are expected to vote against Sereno’s conviction.

“That means that she needs to convince only two senators on the insufficiency of the grounds to impeach her for her to escape ouster,” he stressed.

However, Zarate conceded that some so-called independent-minded senators who belong to the pro-Duterte majority coalition in the Senate are vulnerable to pressure from Malacañang.

“That is because they have pending pork-related cases in the Sandiganbayan, they have skeletons in their closet that the administration could expose, or they are up for reelection or aiming for other posts (next year) and they need the support of the President,” he said. – Jess Diaz, Artemio Dumlao