Impeachment only way to oust CJ, say law deans

SEEING RED People on Thursday walk by the gate of the Supreme Court compound in Manila festooned with red ribbons by the high tribunal’s employees to show they want the justices to back a petition to remove Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno from office. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

The Chief Justice can be removed from office only by impeachment, deans and professors at law schools across the country said on Thursday, a day before the Supreme Court votes on a challenge to the validity of Maria Lourdes Sereno’s 2012 appointment to the top post in the judiciary.

“Any other means would be unconstitutional,” more than 130 law school faculty members said in a statement titled “A Call for Adherence to Constitutional Process” published in a Manila newspaper.

The Supreme Court sits in a special full-court session on Friday to vote on a quo warranto petition brought by Solicitor General Jose Calida to invalidate Sereno’s appointment for her alleged failure to submit all of her financial statements when she applied for the top job in the judiciary six years ago.

Impeachment only

Calida’s petition is widely seen as illegal, as the 1987 Constitution prescribes impeachment as the sole process for removing constitutional officers.

Members of a group called Coalition for Justice (CFJ) and several religious organizations will march around the Supreme Court area in Ermita, Manila, and stage a vigil in front of the courthouse while the justices deliberate on Calida’s petition.

CFJ said on Thursday up to 5,000 people were expected to take part in the protest called Jericho March, which would begin at 4 a.m.

Religious groups opposed to Calida’s action held a vigil in front of the Supreme Court on Thursday night, praying for the dismissal of his petition.

The law educators said granting Calida’s petition would expose other constitutional officers to “the same vicious cycle of extrajudicial removal process, which will subvert the constitutional check and balance and endanger judicial independence.”

Among the college deans who signed the statement were Hector Hofileña of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) Graduate School of Law; Jose Manuel Diokno of De La Salle College of Law; Maria Soledad Derequito-Mawis of Lyceum College of Law; Anna Maria Abad of Adamson College of Law, and Manuel Quibod of Ateneo de Davao University College of Law.

Other educators who signed the statement were Pacifico Agabin of the University of the Philippines College of Law, Marisol Anenias of the PLM College of Law and Jose Mari Tirol of the University of San Agustin College of Law.

Faculty members of law schools in Manila and the cities of Baguio, Butuan, Cotabato and Davao also signed the statement.

Law schools, they said, have always taught that a Chief Justice can be removed only by impeachment, a process by which the House of Representatives brings charges against a constitutional official in the Senate, which tries the case and either convicts or absolves the officer.

Sereno is facing an impeachment bid in the House, which is dominated by President Duterte’s allies, but Calida has separately brought the quo warranto petition against the Chief Justice in a stunt that appears to be a test of the limits of the Constitution.

Integrity of process

“We are not questioning the motivation, integrity and patriotism of anyone involved in this process but we must remind them that the integrity of the process is as important as its result,” the educators said.

“Let the impeachment of the Chief Justice take its course as the Constitution dictates. Let the trial in the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, begin. Allow the Chief Justice to defend herself in the impeachment trial,” they said.

The educators called on the senators to be conscious of the possible implications of their decision after the impeachment trial.

“It will become a precedent of how impeachment will be wielded against sitting justices of the Supreme Court and members of critical constitutional bodies, and even the President of the Philippines,” they said. — WITH REPORTS FROM DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN, JODEE A. AGONCILLO AND AIE BALAGTAS SEE