House defers action on impeachment complaint vs Sereno

The House of Representatives’ committee on rules has deferred action on the justice committee report and articles of impeachment filed against former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas said Tuesday.

“We will hold in abeyance action on the committee report of committee on justice. In fact, I have excluded it in our agenda (in the rules committee),” said Fariñas, who chairs the House committee on rules tasked to calendar the agenda before the plenary.

The House leader said they would wait for the Supreme Court’s final resolution on the possible motion for reconsideration that may be filed by Sereno’s camp.

“Pero kung tatanggalin na siya sino pa ang tatanggalin natin (if she is going to be removed from office, then who are we going to impeach)?” he added.

Should the high court scrap Sereno’s appeal, Fariñas said he would recommend the dismissal of the impeachment case against the chief justice “because it’s already moot and academic.”

But if the motion for reconsideration is granted, the impeachment case would proceed. “The impeachment case will have the life of its own once again,” he said.

Fariñas said committee members would conduct nominal voting to dismiss the panel report and the articles of impeachment. He also stressed that the report would not be archived as the  case may be revived in the future.

The House leader earlier said the rules committee has until the resumption of Congress on July 23 to put the matter on the plenary agenda. /ee

READ: House still has until year-end to act on Sereno impeachment