Why does the House justice committee want Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to appear before it when the impeachment complaint against her has already been endorsed by 25 congressmen?
An impeachment case is initiated in the House and if found sufficient in form and substance is transmitted to the Senate which will then convene itself into an impeachment court. This was what happened in the case of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona who was found guilty of not stating his true Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth.
Unseated as chief magistrate with only three senators —Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the late Miriam Defensor Santiago and Joker Arroyo voting against the rest of the Senate— Corona died a broken man, a casualty of the numbers game in a political process. Corona was appointed chief justice by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo while Sereno was named chief magistrate by former President Noynoy Aquino. Having a chief justice appointed by the president as well as stacking the deck with justices appointed by the Palace gives the administration an edge on legal issues before the high court. So, who’s to say this isn’t politics after all?
In Sereno’s case, she is accused by little-known lawyer Larry Gadon of alleged betrayal of public trust, and corruption for spending SC funds without the consent of the rest of the justices sitting en banc.
Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House justice panel, wanted CJ Sereno to answer the charges within 10 days upon receipt of the complaint. If an impeachment case is a numbers game, the Duterte administration’s supermajority in the House could just send to the Senate the documents in the case as it did in the Corona case.
Recall that then-House Speaker Manny Villar, on the opening of Congress banged the gavel and declared the impeachment case against President Joseph Estrada transmitted to the Senate. It may have been a surprise to some but it was a well scripted scenario known to key House members.
To hear Umali, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia state their case that they want to give Sereno a fair hearing before the case is transmitted to the Senate, one is given the impression the chief magistrate is going to be given a chance to clear herself. The House, however, in effect has already condemned her when the justice panel endorsed the complaint as sufficient in form and substance.
For the Chief Justice to submit herself to the lower chamber would only be further humiliating herself. Her answers to probing questions would bind her to stick to what she says in the House and what she will testify in the Senate. So, why show your hand?
In a regular criminal case, an accused through his lawyer sometimes foregoes a preliminary hearing before a fiscal. This is to have a line of defense not known to the prosecution when the case goes to trial before a judge.
How will the present composition of the Senate vote in a Sereno impeachment trial? Senators Ramon Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada are out of the Senate. Senator Leila de Lima is in detention for alleged involvement in drug trafficking in the New Bilibid Prison. Alan Peter Cayetano has moved to the Department of Foreign Affairs. Senator Gregorio Honasan is out on bail on the pork barrel scam. The verdict will be left to Senate President Koko Pimentel and Senators Panfilo Lacson, Richard Gordon, Edgardo “Sonny”Angara, Grace Poe, Franklin Drilon, Tito Sotto, Kiko Pangilinan, Ralph Recto, Paulo “Bam” Aquino, Riza Hontiveros, Antonio Trillanes, Joel Villanueva, Sherwin Gatchalian, Loren Legarda, Cynthia Villar, Manny Pacquiao and Nancy Binay.
While there are senators who are perceived to be sucking up to Duterte’s ruling PDP-Laban Party, opposition senators and those who want to be seen as independent could tip the verdict for Sereno—or we could see a deadlock in the votes cast. It all depends on the evidence presented by the prosecution and how Chief Justice Sereno can parry the accusations.
But then, the interpretation of the law is as varied as there as many lawyers. The country so far, has witnessed two other impeachment cases, that of then President Joseph Estrada and Chief Justice Renato Corona. It is in an impeachment process where the forces of the legislative and the judiciary come into play.
Let us not rule out the unseen hand of the executive branch which was revealed in the Corona case by former Senator Jinggoy Estrada.