THE House of Representatives on Wednesday barred a private citizen from filing an impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and eight other justices for failing to get an endorsement from any of the lawmakers.
Private citizen Teofilo Parilla went to Congress to charge the high court justices with culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for allowing Senator Grace Poe to run in the presidential race even without the high tribunal resolving Poe’s citizenship and residency issues.
Apart from Sereno, Parilla wanted impeached Associate Justices Jose Perez, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Jose Mendoza, Lucas Bersamin, Marvic Leonen, Francis Jardeleza, Diosdado Peralta and Alfred Benjamin Caguia for their March 8 decision and April 5 resolution that were promulgated and issued despite the “lack of majority vote” as required by the Constitution.
“Matagal ko pong pinag-isipan at sa tingin ko po, walang tumatayo para baguhin yung nangyari sa institution natin sa kataas-taaasang hukuman,” Parilla told told reporters when asked for his motive in filing the complaint four days before the May 9 elections.
Parilla went to the office of House Secretary General Marilyn Yap, who refused to accept the impeachment complaint, saying it did not carry with it an endorsement from a House member.
He insisted that previous impeachment complaints against former President and now reelectionist Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had been filed without an endorsement but was accepted by the House.
Yap advised Parilla to find a lawmaker that would stamp his or her endorsement on the impeachment document.
In a 27-page complaint, Parilla said: “In a mischievous display of reverent robe, the magistrates seemingly clothed the unconstitutionality of their own decision and played the number’s game, regardless of its arrogant violation of the Constitution and their own internal rules. Sadly, by playing the number’s game, the magistrates even enlarged their own sinkhole and exposed their blatant violation of the Constitution in promulgating the decision.”
Parilla also said the magistrates betrayed the public trust by disregarding the clear mandate and the provision of Article VI, Section 2 of the Constitution as to the qualifications of a candidate for presidency in their determination that Poe was a qualified candidate.
He said the Constitution requires that to arrive at a decision, the Supreme Court en banc should decide “with the concurrence of a majority of the members who actually took part in the deliberations on the issues in the case and voted thereon.”
“Here, all the 15 magistrates actually took part and deliberated on the sole issue of whether to grant or dismiss the Consolidated Petitions of Poe-Llamanzares. In deciding the issue, the Court En Banc arrived at the following: Nine (9) Justices voted to grant the Petition and Six (6) Justices voted to dismiss the Petition,” Parilla said.
In the issue of citizenship, he said, the SC en banc actually did not put to a vote the issue but in their separate opinions, the justices expressed their opinions on the citizenship status of Poe-Llamanzares.
“Based on these separate opinions, we can easily say that the Justices are divided as follows: Seven (7) Justices namely Chief Justice Sereno, Justices Perez, Velasco, Mendoza, Bersamin, Leonen and Jardeleza opined that Poe-Llamanzares is a natural born Filipino Citizen; Five (5) Justices namely Carpio, Leonardo De Castro, Brion, Reyes and Perlas-Bernabe opined that Poe-Llamanzares is not a natural born Filipino Citizen; Two (2) Justices namely Caguioa and Peralta declined to decide on the issue of citizenship; And one Justice namely Del Castillo refrained from giving his opinion on the issue invoking Doctrine of Constitutional Avoidance;
“Thus, all the 15 justices participated in the deliberation and based on their separate opinions resulted in a vote of seven declaring that Poe-Llamanzares is a natural born Filipino citizen and five declaring that she is not,” Parilla pointed out.
Clearly, he said, Poe-Llamanzares’s natural born status was not resolved by a majority of the justices as required and the issue remains unsettled.
“As such, the Court en Banc cannot determine whether the Commission on Elections committed grave abuse of discretion when it cancelled Poe-Llamanzares’ certificate of candidacy and because of this, the petitions should have been dismissed,” Parilla said.
As to residency requirement, Parilla said the SC en banc also did not put to a vote the issue but as can be gleaned in their separate opinions, the Justices were divided as follows: Seven found that Poe-Llamanzares is a resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding the upcoming 9 May 2016 Elections; Six Justices all saw that Poe-Llamanzares failed to comply with the 10-year residency requirement; and two declined to decide on the issue of residency.
“All of the justices deliberated the issue, but only seven were convinced that Poe-Llamanzares complied with the 10-year residency requirement. Undeniably therefore, Poe-Llamanzares’ qualification as to 10- year residency requirement was not resolved by a majority of the Justices as required under Section 4(a) Article VIII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution,” he stressed.
Parilla said the nine justices not only violated the Constitution but totally betrayed the public trust as they all knew that the March 8 decision lacked the majority requirement, “yet, the same was presented and issued as a majority decision.”
“Under the guise that nine Justices voted to grant the Consolidated Petitions and only 6 dissented, the decision was erroneously issued making the public believe that majority supported it albeit the fact that two Justices out of the nine Justices actually had no position on the issues of Poe-Llamanzares’ residency and citizenship,” Parilla pointed out.
In cancelling Poe’s COC, Parilla said the Comelec resolved there were “false material representations in her COC with respect to her citizenship and residency.”
He said it follows that Poe, who was naturalized as an American citizen on 18 October 2001 effectively abandoned her domicile of origin in the Philippines.