Sereno lawyer: No need for chief justice to sign bank waivers

MANILA, Philippines—There is no need for Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to sign bank waivers for the probe on her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, one of her spokespersons said.

Over the weekend, Larry Gadon, a lawyer and the complainant in the impeachment case against Sereno, said that the chief justice should sign a bank waiver to allow a probe of her wealth.

Corruption is one of the grounds Gadon, a Duterte Youth lawyer and a defeated senatorial aspirant, used in his impeachment raps.

READ: House panel finds sufficient grounds to impeach Sereno

But lawyer Josalee Deinla on Monday said in Filipino that: “The answer there is that there is no need for her to sign because there is already a standard provision in the SALN forms that is signed by all officials of the government.”

Deinla said that once the SALN is filed, the ombudsman or a duly-authorized representative already has clearance to obtain documents related to the assets of government official or employee who filed the statement. 

Gadon accused Sereno of accumulating wealth from the NAIA Terminal 3 expropriation case during her stint as a private lawyer that she did not declare. He said her stated fee of P16 million was not declared in the chief justice’s SALN.

READ: Impeachment against Sereno raises political questions

Deinla added that the Sereno remains unfazed as she has always maintained that she has nothing to hide from the probing authority.

'Hopeful but not certain'

Joshua Santiago, a lawyer and also a spokesperson of Sereno, said that the team remains “hopeful but not certain” that the impeachment proceeding at the House of Representatives will remain free of pressure from external forces.

“We are hopeful but not certain they will vote according to law and according to what is right,” Santiago said. “Our hope is that the congressmen realize that it’s not too late.”

He added: “Their responsibility is with the public and not with the ‘super majority.’” He was referring to the supermajority coalition at the House of Representatives led by the administration PDP-Laban party. 

On October 5, the House Committee on Justice voted 25-2 to find sufficient ground to impeach Sereno. The committee will still need to determine whether there is probable cause to impeach the chief justice, whom President Rodrigo Duterte has already accused of corruption.

Members of the House of Representatives will vote in plenary on whether to approve and reject the justice committee’s report.

If at least a third of the members of the House — 98 of 292 members — vote to approve the committee report, this will then constitute the Articles of Impeachment and the chief justice is impeached. The Articles of Impeachment will be transmitted to the Senate, which will try the case as an impeachment court.

'Narco judges' issue

The House of Representatives is dominated by lawmakers allied with Duterte, with whom Sereno has been at loggerheads with over certain issues since last year.

READ: Makabayan bloc leaves House Supermajority, ends Duterte alliance

Early in his administration, Duterte accused and identified some members of the judiciary as “narco-judges.” Sereno called the disclosure of the list premature and wrote Duterte to inform him that the SC was launching a probe on the judges he named.

This is one of the grounds cited by Gadon in his complaint. He accused Sereno of betraying the public trust because the letter "invited a head-on collision between the presidency and the judiciary."

Sereno maintains that the letter “only demonstrated the chief justice's genuine concern for the welfare of all members of the Judiciary (including those accused of involvement in illegal drugs), but also her willingness, through the SC's power of administrative supervision over lower courts, to cooperate and work with President in his campaign against illegal drugs."

The chief justice is the head of a co-equal branch of government while the legislature is headed by the speaker of the House and the Senate president. The president heads the largest co-equal branch, the executive. 

READ: Point by point: Sereno answers impeachment complaint