Sereno: Judiciary budget held hostage in exchange for my ouster

Former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno claimed that the House of Representatives held the judiciary’s budget in hostage, only releasing it if necessary documents needed for the complaint against her would be released.

“At that time, Professor Theodore Te, chief of the Public Information Office who was part of our delegation to the house, relayed a message to me from Justice Diosdado Peralta, who was there at the House,” Sereno said in a speech at the University of the Philippines on Tuesday, after the Supreme Court affirmed the quo warranto petition against her.

“And this was the message: that Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Fariñas had told Justice Peralta that Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez had ordered the suspension of the deliberations of the budget of the judiciary unless all the documents that the complainant requested from the Supreme Court would be released,” she added.

“The message was clear. The House leadership was going to hold hostage the judiciary’s budget unless the Supreme Court cooperated fully with its plan to remove me,” she said. /atm