Is complainant liable for perjury in Sereno impeachment case?

House of Representatives deliberation on impeachment of Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno: complainant Atty. Lorenzo Gadon (C), Justice Committee chairman Rep. Reynaldo Umali, other congressmen. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

Impeachment complainant Lorenzo “Larry” Gadon “may be liable for perjury” after Supreme Court Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro denied being the source of information for some of his allegations, Rep. Reynaldo Umali, the House justice committee chair, said on Wednesday.

In a chance interview on Wednesday evening, Umali told reporters that Gadon stated under oath that he relied on a news report by Manila Times justice reporter Jomar Canlas and that the journalist got his information from De Castro.

De Castro on Wednesday afternoon said in a statement: “I have never released to Jomar Canlas any information, report or document regarding the work of the court.”

“This is under oath and so he will have to answer for his actions,” said Umali when asked about De Castro’s statement.

Subpoena for Canlas

He said, however, that the committee would issue a subpoena for Canlas to appear before the panel to shed light on Gadon’s statements.

“Let’s see his side regarding what really happened. Perhaps, he got boastful in telling Attorney Gadon, so his name is now being quoted. So again, we will look deep into these contradictory statements from De Castro, Gadon and, hopefully, Canlas can clarify this,” he said.

Asked if a finding of perjury would scuttle the impeachment complaint against Sereno, Umali said the contradiction was limited to only one of Gadon’s allegations.

“I do not know up to what extent this will be damaging to that particular allegation, so we’ll see how things roll out in the coming days,” he said.

For his part, Gadon said his statement could not be considered perjurious because “the documents are existing already.”

“Even if no justice will testify on those, uh, documents, the presence of the documents is already there,” he said.

As for the reporter, Gadon said: “I, uhm, uh … I, uh … I have yet to talk to Jomar Canlas about it. Probably, he doesn’t want to give more information about this.”