IT consultant no-show at House impeach hearing vs Sereno

The information and communications technology (ICT) consultant allegedly hired by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno did not show up on Tuesday’s hearing of the House committee on justice on the impeachment complaint filed against the country’s top magistrate.

Sereno allegedly hired ICT consultant Helen Perez-Macasaet in 2013 to review, assess, and update the implementation of the Supreme Court’s Enterprise Information Systems Plan and other ICT projects.

Macasaet was reportedly paid around P9 million from six contracts, lasting six months each, from October 2013 to October 2016. But the hiring of Macasaet allegedly went without public bidding.

Present at the House justice panel hearing were Court of Appeals Associate Justice Remedios Salazar-Fernando and Court Administrator Atty. Jose Midas Marquez.

Meanwhile, House committee on justice chair Rep. Reynaldo Umali criticized anew Sereno’s continued absence in the hearing.

“If the Chief Justice continues to ignore the invitations and disable this committee from eliciting her rebuttal to any of the allegations that are being established here, that is to her account. And as I said, this committee will have no basis to make conclusions on the various issues that remain unrebutted and the venue for clarifying his matter is this committee and not the media,” he said.  /kga