SC allows justices to testify vs Sereno

MANILA, Philippines — Supreme Court (SC) magistrates and officials will attend the hearings by a congressional panel on the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno if invited.

Voting unanimously in session yesterday, Sereno’s fellow magistrates decided to allow members of the judiciary invited by the House justice committee to testify in hearings on issues raised in an impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Lorenzo Gadon.

The voting was done in Sereno’s absence as she was on leave.

House justice committee chairman Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali thanked the justices for their decision.

“This is very important to us so that we can resolve these issues the soonest,” he said.

The committee is trying to establish probable cause to impeach Sereno.

Three magistrates – incumbent Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Noel Tijam and retired Associate Justice Arturo Brion – have manifested to the House panel their intention to testify in the impeachment case.

In a press conference, SC spokesman Theodore Te said any official of the high court would be allowed to appear before the House panel and testify on administrative matters of the Court raised in Gadon’s complaint.

“Those who are invited to testify on administrative matters may do so if they wish. The Court is not requiring them but the Court is granting them clearance if they so wish to appear and testify on administrative matters,” he explained.

But on matters involving decisions of the Court, Te said only Justice De Castro has been authorized by the SC with specific conditions.

“On adjudicative matters, meaning matters that go into the decision of cases, which would include deliberation of cases, only Justice Teresita de Castro has been authorized to appear and testify before the House committee on justice and only in relation to three matters,” he added.

De Castro is allowed by the Court to discuss the exchange of communications with Sereno on the issuance of the temporary restraining order in a case involving senior citizens.

She may also testify on the merits of the decision she penned that declared unconstitutional the clustering of shortlisted nominees made by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) last year in connection with the vacancies in the Sandiganbayan.

De Castro has also been authorized by the Court to discuss the merits of her separate concurring opinion in the August 2014 ruling that voided the JBC’s decision not to include the name of then solicitor general Francis Jardeleza in the shortlist of nominees for SC justice post after Sereno raised an integrity issue against him.

The magistrate, however, is barred from discussing matters involving the deliberations of the Court on those three cases, which are covered by the confidentiality rule under SC rules.

Apart from De Castro, Tijam and Brion have also been invited by the House panel.

Tijam has been invited by the House committee to shed light on the complaint that Sereno had caused delay in the transfer of the rebellion cases against arrested members and supporters of Maute terrorist group in Marawi City to a court in Metro Manila.

Brion, for his part, has been asked to talk about his concurring opinion in the SC ruling on Jardeleza’s appointment.

Also invited by the House panel were Te, Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, Clerk of Court Felipa Anama and chief judicial staff officer Charlotte Labayani.  

The SC had allowed in August the release of court records and documents sought by impeachment complainants to bolster their case against Sereno.

Among the records ordered released were the SC’s revocation of Sereno’s order in 2012 to reopen a regional constitutional administrative office (RCAO) in Cebu without the collegial approval of the Court.

The SC also allowed the release of Sereno’s memorandum on the appointment of lawyer Solomon Lumba as her staff head and the subsequent letter of Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio withdrawing his signature from the appointment paper over an internal issue.

But the high court rejected the request for the release of a memorandum from De Castro questioning Sereno’s orders regarding the appointment of a Philippine Judicial Academy (Philja) official and the allocation of travel allowances for her staff.

The SC explained that such memorandum could not be released pending resolution from the Court.   

With the SC decision, Umali said he told committee members – many of whom are lawyers – to work among themselves some ground rules or guidelines for propounding questions to the SC justices, to make sure they would not feel disrespected.

Before the committee adjourned yesterday, Umali discussed the guidelines with his colleagues Vicente Veloso of Leyte, a former Court of Appeals justice; Henry Oaminal of Misamis Occidental and Deputy Speaker Gwen Garcia, among others.

Umali said the justices would be notified of the dates or time of their appearance before the committee. The next hearings will be on Dec. 4 until Dec. 6.

“We will invite them one at a time and on a particular date para naman hindi masayang ang oras nila (so we’ll not be wasting their time). There will be an allocation of one hour each per (impeachment) charge,” he said on Monday. – Delon Porcalla