Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno (File photo by RAFFY LERMA/Philippine Daily Inquirer)
“The President has a supermajority. Why would the supermajority leave their ally hanging?”
This was the take of Deputy Speaker Fredenil Castro on Sunday when asked if President Rodrigo Duterte’s eagerness to oust Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno would have an effect on the House of Representatives’ impeachment proceedings.
“If they don’t take a stand as a member of the supermajority, the question would arise on why you became members of the supermajority,” he said in a radio interview.
The House justice committee on Thursday deemed sufficient the grounds cited in the impeachment complaint against Sereno, a day after the President’s rant against the Chief Justice.
Castro said the Senate, acting as the impeachment court, “cannot avoid” the precedent it set when it convicted the late Chief Justice Renato Corona on May 29, 2012, of failure to disclose his wealth properly.
Complainant Lorenzo Gadon had accused Sereno of failure to fully disclose her earnings when she handled the government’s suit against the Philippine International Air Terminals Inc.
Castro said: “Can the Senate avoid it by saying Chief Justice Sereno did not do anything wrong when there is already a precedent?”
“If you did it to Chief Justice Corona, you should do it too to Chief Justice Sereno,” Castro said.
Sereno found an ally in a group of Filipino Muslims who questioned Gadon’s motive in filing the case against Sereno.
“We can only guess Gadon’s motive. He may be crazy,” said Abdul Ansari Garsi, head of the Moro Defense for Democracy Alliance, in a statement. —With a report from Marlon Ramos