Fariñas cautions complainants vs Sereno

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. INQUIRER FILES / RAFFY LERMA

Any attempt to impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno would go through the same scrutiny as the earlier failed bid of Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano to impeach President Duterte, the House leadership warned the complainants on Thursday.

Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas cautioned the two sets of complainants who tried unsuccessfully on Wednesday to get a House endorsement for their impeachment cases against Sereno that they should have either personal knowledge of wrongdoing or solid documentary evidence against the chief magistrate.

Fariñas, in a group message to reporters, said he read the impeachment complaint of lawyer Lorenzo Gadon after the latter went to his office seeking an endorsement.

He recalled telling the lawyer that “his allegations must substantially comply with his Verification that they are of his own personal knowledge and/or culled from authentic records.”

“I told him that if such is endorsed by any House Member and is referred by the Committee on Rules to the Committee on Justice, I will subject it to the same scrutiny that I did with the Alejano complaint,” Fariñas said.

In May, the House junked the impeachment complaint filed by Alejano against Duterte for insufficiency of substance after finding that the complainant had no personal knowledge of his accusations against the President, many of which were based on news reports or testimonies of other witnesses.

Fariñas noted that there were attachments of newspaper reports to Gadon’s complaint, “so I advised him to get certified true copies of the SC (Supreme Court) orders or circulars that he is alleging to be parts of his causes of action.”

“If the SC will not give him copies of the SALN (statement of assets, liabilities and net worth) of the Chief Justice, or the JBC (Judicial and Bar Council) her alleged psychiatric report or the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) her ITRs (income tax returns), the Committee on Justice could subpoena them, if and when it reaches that stage of the impeachment proceedings,” he said.

“Atty. Gadon, or any other complainant for Impeachment, should comply with his Verification for at least a substantial portion of his allegations especially those that are readily available as they are public documents or records,” he said.

After failing to convince lawmakers to endorse his complaint, Gadon decided to postpone the filing to another day.

He told reporters a number of House members had committed to endorsing the Sereno complaint but were biding their time until they became a bigger group.

In his complaint, a copy of which was sent to House reporters, Gadon accused Sereno of, among other things, failing to declare P37 million in lawyer’s fees in her net worth, purchasing a luxury car with public funds, manipulating judicial appointments, and pressuring judges to defy the administration.

Gadon cited as grounds of impeachment alleged transgressions by Sereno showing that she culpably violated the Constitution, betrayed the public trust, committed corrupt practices and other high crimes.

Another impeachment complaint against Sereno was submitted to the House Secretary General on Wednesday by Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption chair Dante Jimenez and Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution Inc. president Eligio Mallari.

But that complaint was not considered to have been officially received as it did not bear the endorsement of a House member, a requirement under the 1987 Constitution.

Jimenez and Mallari accused Sereno of acting like a “dictator” by disregarding the decisions of the Supreme Court en banc and making unilateral decisions.

They alleged that Sereno gave members of her staff travel allowances for foreign travel charged to Supreme Court funds without court en banc approval, sitting on the applications for judicial posts for years, and creating new offices without authority. CBB