Jimenez group hopeful impeach rap vs Sereno will move forward

Volunteers against Crime and Corruption founding chair Dante Jimenez. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution Inc. (VPCI) are hopeful that with the certified true copies of documents they have obtained from the Supreme Court, the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno can move forward.

“Of the 290 plus lawmakers, I am pretty sure there would be one soul that will say that what we have filed is really reflective of what the other justices perhaps feels,” VACC founding chair Dante Jimenez said on Thursday.

“We have done our part. Now, it is up to you guys at the House of Representatives to do yours,” he added.

After the Supreme Court’s en banc session last Tuesday that partially granted the VACC-VCPI’s request for Sereno’s records, the members of the group personally went to the high court to receive the documents.

“We thank the SC from the bottom of our hearts, for being very transparent to us victims of heinous crimes and corruption because we feel that the SC has now shown their transparency on this matter,” Jimenez told reporters.

Among the documents released by the Supreme Court are the following:

-En Banc Resolution in A.M. 12-11-9-SC supposedly adopted on Nov. 27, 2012 creating the Judiciary Decentralized Office (JDO) and re-opening the Regional Court Administration Office (RCAO) in Central Visayas

-Subsequent En Banc Resolution recalling A.M. 12-11-9-SC

-Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio’s letter on the withdrawal of his signature in the appointment of Atty. Solomon Lumba as Chief Justice Staff Head II

-Memorandum to the Court en banc dated December 2012 of Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro seeking the recall of honorable Sereno’s administrative order creating the new Judiciary Decentralized Office and re-opening the Regional Court Administration Office

-En Banc Resolution creating the Needs Assessment Committee to determine the need to decentralize the functions of the Supreme Court in support of its power of administrative supervision over lower courts.

Only the Memorandum dated July 10, 2017 issued by Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro was not allowed to be released because the matter is still pending.