Juan Ponce Enrile joins private prosecutors vs Sereno

MANILA, Philippines — The veteran lawyer who presided over the impeachment court that ousted Renato Corona will lead the private prosecutors in the looming impeachment trial of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, according to reliable sources.

Former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile has reportedly starting going over the charges raised against Sereno, with special focus on her filing of statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

Enrile, who turned 94 last month, has been out on bail since August 2015 on charges of plunder – normally a non-bailable offense – in connection with the pork barrel scam. The Supreme Court, citing humanitarian grounds, which Enrile did not raise in his petition, overturned a Sandiganbayan ruling denying him bail.

Corona was found guilty and removed by the Senate impeachment court after he admitted failing to declare in his SALN dollar and peso deposits in several banks.

He was replaced by Sereno, the most junior member of the Supreme Court (SC), who is also expected to be impeached when the House of Representatives votes on her case in plenary session.

The House prosecution team is expected to be led by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, whose committee on justice found probable cause to impeach Sereno the other day.

Also expected to join the House prosecution team are Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, Deputy Speaker Gwendolyn Garcia and Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso, senior vice chairman of the House of Representatives committee on justice.

Veloso said yesterday that congressmen expected the SC to resolve a quo warranto petition to unseat Sereno within one or two months.

He said the petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida, the government’s lawyer, is valid and not unconstitutional.

“There are two causes of action here. One is the quo warranto, which questions the qualification of the Chief Justice at the time she was appointed. The second is impeachment, which involves impeachable offenses she allegedly committed while in office,” Veloso said in a TV interview.

Veloso’s timeline jibes with that of Fariñas, who told reporters on Tuesday that the House would await the resolution of the quo warranto case before voting on Sereno’s impeachment.

“I see that there is a serious challenge on the legitimacy of the officer in question. Maybe by May 14, the Supreme Court has already resolved it. They have the whole month of April and half of May. In fact, according to news reports, they have raffled it to Associate Justice (Noel) Tijam. So they will start tackling that,” Fariñas told reporters on Tuesday.

May 14 is when Congress reconvenes after a seven-week Lenten vacation starting on March 21.

Fariñas said the House would tackle the report of the committee on justice finding probable cause to impeach Sereno after the Holy Week recess.

Sereno’s spokesman Anacleto Rei Lacanilao lll, who guested in the same TV program, said removing the Chief Justice through a quo warranto proceeding is not within the purview of the Constitution.

“There is only one constitutional process to remove an impeachable official, and it is impeachment,” Lacanilao said.

According to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel lll, who will preside over Sereno’s expected impeachment trial, the Charter provides that an impeachable officer could be ousted only through the impeachment process.

“If you invent some other proceeding that will result in removal from office, then that would violate the Constitution,” Pimentel said.

Sereno has been urging the House to send the impeachment complaint against her to the Senate so she could be given her “day in the impeachment court.”

Veloso, a former Court of Appeals justice, was not asked for the basis of his two-month timeline for the resolution of the Calida case against the chief Justice.

Justice committee members have said they have their own sources of information in the Supreme Court.

On Feb. 27, when the Sereno camp announced that the Chief Justice was going on a two-week wellness leave, Congressman Umali made a correction.

It was an indefinite leave forced upon the Chief Justice, he said, citing Supreme Court sources.

Sereno and the SC subsequently clarified that she was taking an indefinite leave of absence to prepare for her projected Senate impeachment trial.

Vice President Leni Robredo hopes that the impeachment proceedings against Sereno would not to be tainted with politics.

“So, sana maging maayos ‘yung (I hope there would be proper) proceedings at hindi na haluan ng pulitika kasi pag hinaluan ito ng pulitika, ito ang makakasira sa mga institusyon (and not tainted with politics that could destroy institutions),” Robredo said after she attended yesterday the 4th Babaenihan National Level Event at the University of the Philippines campus in Iloilo City.

Asked about her view on the apparent internal conflict at the Supreme Court, Robredo said she is saddened because this affects the integrity of the highest court.

“More than anyone or anything else, yung integrity ng judicial department, yun talaga. ‘Yung paniniwala na shake kasi mahalaga ito sa demokrasya (Your belief is shaken because this is vital to democracy),” she said.

Robredo said democracy dictates that institutions – including the judiciary – should be strong and isolated from politics.

Batangas Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto has offered prayers to Serenoas she faces impeachment.

In a radio interview yesterday, Recto said she hugged Sereno after a women judges’ convention on Thursday and told her, “I will pray for you.”

Like the Chief Justice, she was a guest speaker at the convention, where she was seated between the feuding Sereno and Associate Justice Teresita de Castro.

De Castro has testified against her Supreme Court boss in the House impeachment hearings. 

Santos-Recto said when she arrived at the convention venue, she saw her name in the guests’ table between those of Sereno and De Castro.

She said she felt the tension between the two justices.

She said the Supreme Court is obviously going through “difficult times.”

“It’s not good for the country. Let’s just pray this is over soon,” she added.

She said she would study the justice committee report on the Chief Justice’s impeachment when it is submitted to a plenary vote.

She and senator-husband Ralph Recto belong to the Liberal Party but are allied with the pro-administration majority coalition in Congress. 

While President Duterte washed his hands of the moves to remove Sereno, two of his allies continued to attack her credibility yesterday.

Presidential legal adviser Salvador Panelo and presidential spokesman Harry Roque took turns in questioning the credibility of the Chief Justice, who has filed an indefinite leave ahead of the filing of impeachment charges before the Senate that will convene as an impeachment court. – Evelyn Macairan, Christina Mendez, Jennifer Rendon