AS far as the House of Representatives is concerned, the ouster of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno will be its greatest accomplishment in 2018, along with other top legislative agenda of the Duterte administration.
This, as Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez urged Sereno anew to appear before the House committee on justice to defend herself, saying she could expect fair hearing from the House.
“We do not want to be flooded with impeachment complaints, but we cannot prevent filers from doing so. This is a Constitutional process that we have to understand.[If anyone files any complaint], we have to process it, ” Alvarez told a television interview.
He said Sereno was refusing to participate in the hearings on the impeachment complaint against her because the allegations were being proven and solidified one by one by different witnesses.
“What is Chief Justice Sereno doing? She doesn’t want to confront the truth, she doesn’t want to face the committee on justice to explain her side. Now, isn’t it true that if you’re innocent, you’re ready to face anyone to answer the accusation against you but if you’re hiding something and you know you have done wrong, naturally, you’ll be afraid [to face the accuser in a forum],” Alvarez said.
Alvarez said while he respected the decision of Sereno not to step down from her post, Alvarez said the testimonies provided by the witnesses buttressed the allegations raised against her in the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Larry Gadon.
“The public can see now that the allegations in the complaint are being proven one by one. Various witnesses are testifying, even her fellow justices, to prove that the charges are true,” he said.
Alvarez also advised Sereno and her lawyers to refrain from their alibis that those testifying against her, especially Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro and her fellow justices, were merely blurting out personal grudges.
With the exhaustive hearings conducted by the House justice panel, Alvarez said the House would have solid body of evidence against Sereno if they eventually decide to bring the case before the Senate for trial.
The House justice panel, chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, a former Liberal Party, will resume the Sereno impeachment proceedings when Congress resumes session on Jan. 15.
It is also expected to submit an Articles of Impeachment to the Senate by February.
At the same time, Alvarez sounded upbeat about the good performance of the House of Representatives since its First Regular Session to date, giving it a rating of eight out of 10—the last number being the highest.
“Perhaps, objectively eight,” said Alvarez in a televiaion interview when asked to rate the performance of the House.
Official report of the measures passed by the Lower House of since it opened its session on June 25, 2016 up to Dec. 13, 2017 showed that some 6,911 bills and 1,517 resolutions were filed in the chamber.
Of this number, the House has processed a total 2100 measures, 518 approved, or an average of 14 measures processed per session day, 39 enacted into law, not including the 2018 budget and the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion that President Duterte signed last month.
Alvarez cited the free college education and expanded access to health care laws as the most significant measures the House had passed for the period.
“I am happy about the quantity and quality of bills we have passed. But unfortunately, they are all pending at the Senate. And so those signed into law are only few. But as far as the perfomance of the House of Representatives is concerned, we have passed so much,” Alvarez said.
For the same period, the House has approved 354 bills on third and final reading.
Alvarez cited, for example, the Death Penalty Bill the House passed in March 2017 remained pending in the Senate.
The restoration of the capital punishment is one of the key campaign promises of Duterte who vowed to crack down on crime and illegal drugs.
However, Alvarez said the Senate should exert more effort to push the legislative agenda of the administration.
“They must pass all those House-approved bills to fulfill the legislative agenda of the Duterte administration,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez said he believed the House had performed its mandate well, which included investigations on alleged anomalies in government, including the alleged lopsided and illegal land deal between the Bureau of Corrections and the Tagum Agricultural Development, Co. Inc., and the alleged illegal use of P66.5 million in tobacco excise fund share of the Ilocos Norte Government.
Alvarez said these investigations were warranted because there were sufficient grounds to indicate irregularities and violations of the law.
He dismissed allegations of respondents of political motivation, saying these were mere diversionary tactics and did not address the real issues surrounding the alleged anomalous acts.
Alvarez said hearings on these alleged irregularities were about to be completed.
In the case of the Ilocos Norte tobacco excise tax use, Alvarez said there was ground to file plunder charges against Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos and other respondents.
As regards the Tadeco land deal, Alvarez said he had filed graft charges against Davao Del Norte 2nd District Rep. Antonio Floirendo for violation of the law prohibiting incumbent lawmakers from having interests in contracts with the government.
Apart from these investigations, Alvarez said the House of Representatives performed its constitutional duty to hold top government officials accountable with the separate impeachment complaint against Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista and Supreme Court Chief Justice Sereno.
In the case of Bautista, the former Comelec chair resigned after the House plenary voted to impeach him.
As for Sereno, Alvarez said the House Committee on Justice would continue to accept testimonies against the Chief Justice and could likely finish its job before Congress took its break for the Holy Week.