Finding of probable cause anticlimactic, says Sereno camp

ANTICIPATED VOTE Voting 38-2 on Thursday, the House committee on justice chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, found probable cause to impeach Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The camp of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno described Thursday’s finding of probable cause by the House of Representatives’ justice committee to impeach her as “anticlimactic,” saying the panel had long prejudged the case.

“We actually anticipated that,” lawyer Jojo Lacanilao, a spokesperson for Sereno, said in a statement.

“In fact, it was anticlimactic, since many months ago the leadership of the committee was saying it’s a done deal, there’s [writing] on the wall and they [had] enough evidence to actually convict the Chief Justice,” Lacanilao said.

Voting 38-2, the House justice committee headed by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali found probable cause to impeach Sereno—the first female Chief Justice of the Philippines—on allegations that she filed untruthful or incomplete financial statements, evaded P2 million in taxes, violated the Supreme Court’s collegiality rule and bought a car with P5 million in taxpayer money for her personal use.

Articles of impeachment

Next week, a smaller group will prepare a draft of the articles of impeachment, which will be put to a vote by the justice panel. Once approved, it will be debated by the full House on the floor.

The chamber needs only 98 votes, representing one-third of its 292 members, to impeach Sereno and to send the impeachment articles to the Senate, which will try the case.

Malacañang said the finding showed the country’s institutions were working.

“[W]e are happy that we are seeing our institutions working again,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque told reporters.

Thursday’s House action came more than a year after Sereno angered President Duterte by asserting the judiciary’s authority over erring judges.

Mr. Duterte, then newly elected, demanded that judges he had linked to the illegal drug trade turn themselves in to authorities as part of his bloody crackdown on narcotics.

Sereno rebuffed him, citing rule of law and separation of powers between the executive and judicial branches of government.

Mr. Duterte, however, denied he had a role in his congressional allies’ move to oust Sereno.

In a speech on Tuesday, Mr. Duterte said there were complaints against the Chief Justice from her colleagues on the Supreme Court, but that only Congress, not him, could judge the country’s top magistrate.

Calida’s challenge

Aside from the impeachment case, Sereno is also facing a challenge to her qualification to hold the post of Chief Justice, in a quo warranto case filed by the Duterte administration’s chief lawyer, Solicitor General Jose Calida, in the Supreme Court.

Critics of the administration say, however, that Calida’s action will come to nothing, as under the Constitution, the Chief Justice can be removed from office only through impeachment.

Lacanilao said Sereno was “eager to go to trial so she can finally respond to the baseless allegations hurled [at] her,” having failed to do so after the justice committee barred her lawyers from cross-examining the witnesses on her behalf.

Umali’s panel arrived at the decision after 15 hearings, which saw testimonies of 30 resource persons and witnesses, among them seven incumbent Supreme Court justices who made an unprecedented appearance in a congressional inquiry.

Four grounds

In a summary of findings presented before the body, Umali said the investigation found four grounds to impeach Sereno: culpable violations of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, corruption and other high crimes.

Only Dinagat Islands Rep. Kaka Bag-ao and Quezon City Rep. Jose Christopher Belmonte, both of the Liberal Party, voted against the finding of probable cause by the committee dominated by President Duterte’s allies.

“Actually the evidence they presented has been more helpful to the [Chief Justice]. If at all, if they were able to prove anything since Day One up to now, they only showed the [differences] among the justices, which could be a good subject matter for a bull session or team building,” Bag-ao said in an interview.

 ‘Merciless coup’

Belmonte said the testimonies of the Supreme Court justices only proved one thing, and that was Sereno’s inability to befriend her colleagues.

“But to say this is an impeachable offense and to say she committed high crimes and violations of the Constitution, I did not see probable cause for any of the allegations,” he said.

Opposition lawmakers decried the justice committee’s finding against Sereno.

“It was a merciless coup de grace against Sereno, on International Women’s Day at that,” Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin said.

“Her fight is not lost [on] us as this move will create a backlash against the Duterte administration for bringing to trial a Chief Justice who stood up against a bloody war on drugs, violations of the rule of law and misogyny,” Villarin added.

A group of lawmakers called Makabayan (nationalists) criticized the justice committee’s putting the determination of probable cause to a vote without going through the grounds one by one.

Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas proposed that the committee drop the weaker features of the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Lorenzo Gadon to allow the House prosecution team to present an airtight case in the Senate. —WITH REPORTS FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA AND AFP