‘Antonio Carpio won’t testify against Chief Justice Sereno’

MANILA, Philippines — Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio will no longer testify in the impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno at the House of Representatives.

An insider revealed to The STAR that Carpio yesterday afternoon decided to decline the invitation of the House justice committee for him to appear at the resumption of the impeachment hearings on Monday, Jan.15.

The source, who requested anonymity for lack of authority to speak on the matter, said Carpio would explain the reasons for his decision in a letter to be sent to the House panel today.

Earlier reports had it that Carpio was willing to appear at the impeachment proceedings, but sought clarification first from the panel on what issues in the impeachment complaint of lawyer Lorenzo Gadon he would be asked about.

The House panel chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali responded to the senior magistrate’s query in a letter last Monday.

Carpio was reportedly invited in relation to the alleged anomaly in Sereno’s hiring of an information technology (IT) consultant for her office.

Carpio, the most senior among the justices in terms of tenure in the high court, was the one who sought investigation of the SC on this issue.

The STAR reported earlier that a fact-finding report was already submitted to the SC last month and recommended that the contract amounting to about P10 million for the services of IT consultant Helen Perez-Macasaet be voided for “lapses in the procurement process.”

It stated that the contract violated existing laws and Commission on Audit rules because it did not undergo public bidding.

The report was submitted by newly appointed Assistant Court Administrator Maria Regina Adoracion Filomena Ignacio, acting chief attorney of the high court who was tasked by the full court to investigate the matter in an earlier administrative order.

The contract, which covered six periods of six months each from October 2013 to June 2016, involved services of Macasaet “to provide technical and policy advice to the Office of the Chief Justice and the Management Information Systems Office of the Supreme Court regarding the implementation of EISP (Enterprise Information Systems Plan) and related ICT (information communication technology) projects.”

In the first period under the contract, Macasaet was paid P600,000 or P100,000 per month. But in the succeeding periods, the amount was increased to P1.5 million or P250,000 per month.

It was among the 27 charges in the impeachment complaint filed by Gadon against Sereno.

The lawyer claimed that Sereno committed betrayal of public trust for her “willful failure to procure the services of an ICT consultant in accordance with law and public policy.”

Despite Carpio’s decision, other justices invited by the House have agreed to testify in the next hearings – Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Samuel Martires and Andres Reyes Jr.?Four other SC justices have testified in the impeachment proceedings against Sereno: Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Francis Jardeleza and Noel Tijam and retired associate justice Arturo Brion.