Rody hands off on impeachment bid vs Sereno

MANILA, Philippines - President Duterte will not meddle in the filing of an impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno being readied by an anti-crime group, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Ana Maria Banaag said Duterte respects the separation of powers of the three branches of government as well as the decision of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) to file an impeachment complaint against Sereno.

“When a civilian or any person for that matter files a complaint against any official, an impeachable officer, then that is up to them because that is within the bounds of the law. What we’re saying here is that if a civilian would do that or any person would do that, then that is up for the House of Representatives to handle or tackle,” Banaag said in a press briefing.

“The President respects separation of powers of each of our government agencies. If the House of Representatives would endorse, then, that is up to them,” she added.

The VACC filed the first impeachment complaint against Sereno before the House of Representatives last Wednesday. No lawmaker has endorsed the complaint so far.

VACC accused the Chief Justice of violating the constitutional provision that appointive government officials cannot hold another public post unless provided for by law when she designated Solomon Lumba as her staff head. The STAR had erroneously reported Lumba as among the VACC lawyers.

Sereno, the group said, also named Brenda Jay Mendoza as chief of the Philippine Mediation Center Office without referring it to the court for approval.

The Chief Justice was also accused of granting travel allowances to her staff without the approval of the full bench and of sitting on applications for the posts of Supreme Court deputy clerk of court and chief attorney.

Banaag said the President would neither endorse nor reject the complaint against the Chief Justice, who was once accused by Duterte of meddling in his anti-drug war. Duterte eventually apologized for making the accusation.

Duterte had opposed attempts by some of his allies in the House of Representatives to impeach Vice President Leni Robredo, noting that she was duly elected by the people.

Robredo has criticized Duterte’s war on illegal drugs, which human rights advocates claimed encourages extrajudicial killings.

When asked if Duterte would also issue a statement on efforts to impeach Sereno, Banaag said: “We don’t have any statement from the President… But then, we assure that he would respect the House of Representatives, he would respect the Supreme Court of the Philippines or any other co-equal branch of government.”

“If the President would opt to (issue a statement) in the coming days, then that would be up to him,” he added.

Double check

At the House of Representatives, Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas has advised lawyer Larry Gadon to make sure the impeachment complaint he is set to file against Sereno – supposedly the second against the chief magistrate – complies with the “personal knowledge” requirement.

Gadon is associated with former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and is now a supporter of President Duterte.

“I told him that if such is endorsed by any House member and is referred by the Committee on Rules to the Committee on Justice, I will subject it to the same scrutiny that I did with the (Gary) Alejano complaint,” he said, referring to the junked complaint against Duterte.

“There are attachments to his complaint that are newspaper reports, so I advised him to get certified true copies of the SC orders or circulars that he is alleging to be parts of his causes of action,” Fariñas told reporters in a Viber group message.

“I told attorney Gadon when he came to my office that his allegations must substantially comply with his verification that they are of his own personal knowledge and/or culled from authentic records,” he added.

“If the SC will not give him copies of the SALN of the Chief Justice, or the JBC her alleged psychiatric report or the BIR her ITRs, the committee on justice could subpoena them, if and when it reaches that stage of the impeachment proceedings,” Fariñas added.

SALN stands for statement of assets, liabilities and net worth which in Sereno’s case allegedly did not include at least P16 million in lawyer’s fees for her role in the case with Piatco.

The Judicial and Bar Council is reportedly in possession of a report showing she had failed a psychiatric test. – Delon Porcalla