Opposition lawmakers led by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman on Thursday filed impeachment complaints against seven Supreme Court justices who voted to unseat Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
But Lagman, together with senatorial aspirant and Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano, Representatives Teddy Baguilat of Ifugao and Tom Villarin of Akbayan did not include Ombudsman Samuel Martires in their complaint.
Lagman said Martires was not included because he is no longer an incumbent Associate Justice.
But the impeachment complaint against four Supreme Court associate justices will not affect their nomination for the position of chief justice, a member of the Judicial and Bar Council said Thursday.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, the ex-officio member of the JBC, rejected Lagman’s claim that Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro,
Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin and Andres Reyes Jr. should be disqualified by the council because of the impeachment complaint filed against them before the House of Representatives and three other high court magistrates who voted to oust Sereno.
“In my opinion, the mere filing of an impeachment complaint, which is not the same as a criminal or administrative complaint in the ordinary sense, will not have any effect on the nomination of the four SC justices for the CJ position,” Guevarra said in a text message.
The opposition lawmakers said Justices Teresita de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Andres Reyes, Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam and Alexander Gesmundo allegedly committed a culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust when they acted and ruled in favor of the quo warranto petition filed against Sereno by Solicitor General Jose Calida.
They said the quo warranto petition was illegal, and that the only way to oust Sereno was through an impeachment.
The complainants said the Supreme Court decision dated May 11, 2018, which ousted Sereno by granting the quo warranto petition, “is not only errant, it is also malevolent.”
“It is not only bereft of constitutional anchorage, it is also a blatant subterfuge, an orchestrated charade,” the lawmakers said in their complaint.
Lagman said the seven justices were also charged with culpable violation of the Constitution because they usurped the constitutional power of the Judicial and Bar Council to vet the qualifications of the applicants for positions in the judiciary and to nominate applicants to judicial positions to the exclusion of both the Executive and the Supreme Court.
The JBC qualified Sereno and included her in the shortlist of nominees for appointment as Chief Magistrate way back in August 2012.
De Castro, Peralta, Bersamin, Tijam and Jardeleza are also accused of betrayal of public trust for their refusal to inhibit themselves in the adjudication of the quo warranto petition.
The complainants also claim that “unethical ulterior motives induced Justices De Castro, Peralta and Bersamin to oust Sereno. With the removal of Sereno, a vacancy was created in the position of Chief Justice. These justices were expected to vie for that position as in fact they are.”
Lagman also said “the impeachment complaints will frustrate the aspiration of the concerned Justices for nomination and/or appointment to the vacant position of Chief Justice because an impeachment complaint is akin to or even more serious than an administrative case whose pendency disqualifies applicants for position in the judiciary under the Revised Rules of the JBC.”
The rules of the JBC also required that applicants must be of proven competence, integrity, probity and independence consistent with Section 7 of Article VII of the Constitution, he said. With Rey E. Requejo