Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chair of the House Committee on Justice (File photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Update
Supreme Court justices — three active and one retired — have expressed their willingness to testify before the House justice committee’s impeachment hearing against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Dec. 11.
The House committee’s chairman Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali confirmed this in an interview on Monday.
Umali said SC Associate Justices Noel Tijam, Francis Jardeleza, Teresita de Castro, and retired Associate Justice Arturo Brion “intimated their availability” on the Dec. 11 hearing pending the formalities in the SC.
Umali urged the SC to promulgate the en banc’s decision to allow court justices and employees to attend the impeachment hearings.
De Castro was the first among the justices to testify against Sereno and the first sitting magistrate to testify in a House hearing. In the last hearing, De Castro revealed of Sereno’s supposed “undermining” of the authority of the court and “altering” of a temporary restraining order she recommended in 2012 and in 2013, respectively.
Tijam, President Duterte’s second appointee to the SC, meanwhile was summoned to shed light on allegations that Sereno deliberately delayed the transfer of Maute cases to Taguig court.
Jardeleza will also testify on allegations that Sereno manipulated the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) shortlist to exclude him as a nominee. Brion earlier accused Sereno of “character assassination in the guise of a supplemental comment” by purportedly easing out Jardeleza.
The House justice committee will resume the hearing determining whether there is probable cause to impeach Sereno on Tuesday, Dec. 5 /je