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BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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Friday, March 9, 2018
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MANILA – Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno rebuked the House of Representatives Committee on Justice on the day it determined probable cause to impeach her.
The panel led by Rep. Reynaldo Umali as chairman did not give her the opportunity to face her accusers, she said yesterday.
“[That] the House Committee on Justice denied me my right to confront and cross-examine the witnesses and resource persons arraigned against me is nothing but blatantly unfair,” Sereno told the audience at the Philippine Women Judges Association convention at the Manila Hotel.
“I ask that we dispel all thoughts and impulses of malice and ill will,” she said. “We must denounce gossiping and unfounded innuendos. We do not judge anyone until all the evidence is in.”
The House justice committee ruled yesterday that there is probable cause to impeach the chief justice.
Sereno refused to attend the committee hearings after the panel denied her request to cross-examine resource persons at the proceedings.
The panel, on the other hand, refused to let Sereno’s lawyers attend the hearings if the chief justice herself cannot be there.
Sereno’s camp was not surprised by the voting. It was in fact waiting for the complaint to reach the Senate.
“This is not the end of it all, and the burden of proving the case is on the House, for the House to prove that the Chief Justice should be removed,” said Sereno’s lawyer Jojo Lacanilao. “We believe the chief justice is innocent, and she can prove that in the Senate.”
“As I must fight to have my day at the Senate impeachment court, this is a fight for judicial independence, for the right of every member of the court to confront her accuser face-to-face in a trial-type proceeding,” Sereno said, adding that a “trial-type proceeding challenges allegations and unmasks lies.”
She also criticized Solicitor General Jose Calida’s filing at the Supreme Court of a quo warranto petition seeking to nullify her appointment.
“I look at any forum to try me other than the constitutionally exclusive form of impeachment as an admission by the complainant and my other detractors that, after 15 hearings, they have failed to come up with any evidence which I can be convicted in the Senate,” Sereno said.
“Sila ang nagsimula, bakit ayaw nilang tapusin?” she said. “Napakaaga naman yata para umamin sila na wala silang napala kundi matinding kabiguan kaya’t kung anu-ano na lamang ang gimik ang ginagawa nila masunod lamang ang kanilang nais.”/PN
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