Lawyer Lorenzo Gadon should “review his law” for insisting that Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno should personally face the House committee on justice during the proceedings on her impeachment case, the chief magistrate’s spokesperson said on Friday.
Sereno’s spokesperson, lawyer Jojo Lacanilao, said the Chief Justice is entitled to “the right to counsel and the right to cross-examine the complainant and the witnesses through her lawyers—the same rights that are guaranteed to every citizen of this country to ensure due process.”
“Atty. Lorenzo Gadon should review his law. Any impeachment proceeding, while political in character, does not take away the constitutional rights of the respondent. This political process is imbued with judicial character akin to a criminal prosecution,” Lacanilao said in a statement.
“We make a mockery of the law and the Constitution if the Chief Justice is denied her right to counsel, and by depriving her of this right, we also deny her the right to cross-examine the complainant and the witnesses through her lawyers.”
“It would be a pathetic farce if these constitutional rights are denied by Congress, whose members have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution,” he also said.
Lacanilao said it is “no mystery” why Gadon wanted to take away these constitutional rights from Sereno.
“He is afraid of his own ghost for putting together lies after lies in his impeachment complaint to unjustly unseat the Chief Justice and forward his crooked agenda,” Lacanilao said.
“As a lawyer, Mr. Gadon knows fully well that his complaints are not impeachable offenses and do not stand a chance when they go through the rigors of scrutiny. His baseless charges will be unmasked,” he added.
On Thursday, Gadon, the lawyer who filed the impeachment case against Sereno, said the Chief Justice should not be worried about doing direct and cross examination by herself because she is the topmost magistrate with the “implied connotation of the best among equals.” /kga