Sereno’s ‘Carpe diem’

After so much huffing and puffing, House leaders backing the impeachment of Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno hit the brakes and then shifted gears. The sudden change of pace followed when Solicitor General Jose Calida initiated quo warranto proceedings against Sereno before the Supreme Court (SC).

The House of Representatives adjourned its session last Wednesday night without acting on the impeachment charges on Sereno. Before they started their seven-week Lenten vacation, the House committee on justice approved their Committee Report detailing the six articles of impeachment against the Chief Justice.

Professing repeatedly her innocence, Sereno has been going the rounds of speaking engagements since she was forced to advance her “wellness” leave on March 1. This was after 13 SC magistrates voted to ask her to go on indefinite leave while all these investigations against her are taking place. Speaking yesterday at a women’s rights forum at the University of the Philippines, Sereno claimed a “formidable machinery” is behind the impeachment complaint and other efforts to oust her as Chief Justice.

Mindoro Oriental Rep. Reynaldo Umali, House justice committee chairman, virtually admitted they are not in a hurry to take the next step of the impeachment proceedings after the Solicitor General filed the quo warranto petition with the 15-man SC. Intentionally stalling their moves, Umali pointed out, there might be no need for the House to send the impeachment case to the Senate for trial.

If Sereno’s 13 fellow SC magistrates voted to force her to go on leave, the House leaders see it as indicative the same may find the Calida complaint meritorious enough to remove their Chief Justice themselves.

In particular, Calida contended Sereno’s appointment can be deemed invalid from the start for her failure to submit statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) for several years as a government official before. Sereno is facing the same offense of non-submission of her SALNs among the six articles of impeachment against her.

Given the change of tack by their House colleagues, Senate majority leader Vicente “Tito Sen” Sotto III said they too at the Senate have no choice but to not give priority to the impeachment of Sereno when they resume sessions after the Lenten break.

As they join the rest of the Filipino nation in observing the Lenten period, the 17th Congress will resume their sessions on May 14. Both chambers have only three weeks left in their legislative calendar with the second regular sessions of Congress ending in sine die adjournment on June 2. Thus, Sotto said Sereno’s camp will still have to wait a little longer even after the articles of impeachment are transmitted to them at the Senate.

Sotto explained the Senate impeachment court would have to lay down the rules and procedures, issue summonses for all parties, require them to submit their respective comments, etc. Sotto explained this to us at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay last Wednesday at the Cafe Adriatico in Remedios Circle in Malate.

Effectively, Sotto estimated Sereno’s camp will have four months to prepare before a full impeachment trial starts, at the earliest in August, a week after the 17th Congress opens and convenes its third and last regular sessions.

With little time left, Sotto disclosed, the Senate priority agenda is to pass into law the next set of pending bills earlier agreed upon at the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), foremost of which is President Duterte’s proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). 

To date, Sotto reported a total of 11 new laws were signed by President Duterte out of the LEDAC’s common legislative bills they approved at the Senate before they go into one-month recess starting this Friday.

During their mini-LEDAC meeting last week with President Duterte at Malacanang, Sotto revealed, the Chief Executive advised them to follow the “federal system template” that the Constitutional Commission (Concom) headed by retired SC chief justice Reynato Puno prepared as part of their proposed amendments to the Constitution.

In this way, Sotto quoting the President’s guidance to them, “the federal system template” will be synchronized with the federal form of government envisioned for the Bangsamoro with the rest of the country being worked on by Concom to shift the country’s existing presidential system of government.

Even if the Senators are busy on the BBL, the camp of Sereno has demanded for her immediate impeachment trial by the Senate. They argued it is the only means –not by quo waranto proceedings – to remove in office an impeachable official like the Chief Justice as mandated under our country’s 1987 Constitution. Insisting the innocence of the Chief Justice on all the impeachment charges, her battery of lawyers are apparently counting Sereno will not get the required two-thirds vote by the 24-man Senate to be impeached.

Many of the re-electionist Senators – who can be swayed to vote for Sereno’s acquittal – can have their wish to be included in the administration ticket for the coming Senate race in May 2019. But the jockeying among the senatorial aspirants among the PDP-Laban allies of President Rodrigo Duterte is dividing the “super majority” that supported Senate president Aquilino Pimentel III.

The senatorial candidates bandied about by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez is not helping any the dilemma of Pimentel to win over Senators to vote for Sereno’s impeachment. Pimentel is PDP-Laban president while Alvarez serves as the PDP-Laban secretary-general.

 Impeachment, although it follows legal procedures, is nothing but a political numbers game.  

While Alvarez delivered already the articles of impeachment against Sereno, Pimentel is not in a position to seal the ouster of the Chief Justice.

With both the Senate and the House allies of President Duterte feuding for political spoils, the much-touted “formidable machinery” feared by Sereno might actually save her from impeachment. For Sereno, it is a carpe diem for her to hang on tough.