THE Integrated Bar of the Philippines on Wednesday urged Congress not to abuse its impeachment power against officials of constitutional bodies as it gears to begin the proceedings against Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and Commission on Elections chairman Andres Bautista.
The 55-000 strong mandatory organization of lawyers warned that an abuse of the impeachment process would be unconstitutional.
“It is an assault upon the Constitution and the very ideal of limited government that is enshrined in it when impeachment is misused as the very tool to undermine judicial independence,” IBP national president Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo said in a statement.
“May we express the hope that impeachment as a process is not being brandished as a weapon of submission, thereby defeating constitutional design that the judicial branch be insulated from considerations other than the facts and the law in discharging its function of adjudication,” the IBP said.
While impeachment is one of the tools in the Constitution to exact accountability, Fajardo said its frequent use could dilute its power and strain the limited power of Congress.
“Impeachment is a scalpel, not a broadsword and even if it were the latter, no sword retains its sharpness if swung too far and too often,” the lawyers’ group said.
The IBP also reminded Congress that the Constitution “jealously protects the independence of the judiciary as it is concededly the weakest of all three branches of government. As the unelected branch, the judiciary’s sole standard of action is the rule of law rather than the public pulse.”
Lastly, the IBP vowed to “closely and impartially monitor the proceedings with the view that our institutions are preserved, not diluted.”
Two impeachment complaints have been filed against Sereno before the House of Representatives by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption and the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution Inc. and lawyer Larry Gadon.
The complaints have already been endorsed by 41 members of the House.
Sereno is accused of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust over alleged undisclosed assets in her statement of asset, liabilities and net worth and extravagant spending of judicial funds by purchasing a P5-million Toyota Land Cruiser and traveling on first-class flights.
The complainants also cited as basis Sereno’s order in 2012 to reopen a regional constitutional administrative office in Cebu without the collegial approval of the Court, which was later on revoked by the SC.
The complaint against Bautista, on the other hand, was filed by former Negros Oriental representative Jacinto Paras and lawyer Ferdinand Topacio.
It alleged that the poll chief acquired assets beyond his income as public official and was liable for the breach in voters’ data before the elections last year.
The VACC is reportedly set to file an impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.
The House of Representatives’ committee on justice will soon begin its marathon hearings on the impeachment complaints filed against Sereno and Bautista, after Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez referred the two complaints Tuesday night to the House committee on rules for it to be calendared for deliberations by the House justice committee.
Alvarez said the House will not railroad the impeachment process and that extensive deliberations will be conducted by the committee headed by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali to determine if there is enough evidence to support the allegations hurled against Sereno and Bautista.
House Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas said the justice committee has 60 session days to conduct hearings and submit the report.
The justice panel will determine the complaints’ sufficiency in form and in substance before full blown hearings will be conducted.
Meanwhile, relatives of the 44 slain police Special Action Force troopers and the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption threatened to file an impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales in Congress next week.
Manuelito Luna, VACC legal counsel, said they will joined by the Tanggulang Demokrasya, “a political group,” and former Manila councilor and defeated senatorial bet Greco Belgica in the filing of the impeachment complaint.
Luna said he was confident that the complaint would be endorsed by lawmakerrs.
He said Morales committed a betrayal of public trust and violated the Constitution by being selective in the cases she took up, and for her “inordinate delay” in going after high-profile cases.
He said Morales would only indict those perceived as enemies of the Aquino administration.
He also questioned Morales for absolving former President Benigno Aquino III in the 44 counts of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide, and for indicting him for usurpation of authority and graft over his alleged role in the botched Mamasapano operation on Jan. 25, 2015. With Rio N. Araja