(Eagle News) — Two lawmakers have rejected the Coalition for Justice’s call for the Senate to ask the Supreme Court to suspend the quo warranto proceedings against Chief Justice on leave Maria Lourdes Sereno.
According to Senator Francis Escudero, in the first place, the House of Representatives “has not yet even impeached her.”
“There is no impeachment case before the Senate to even speak of. It would be presumptuous, to say the least, for the Senate to assume that one will indeed be filed sometime in the future against CJ Sereno,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto, for his part, noted the principle of separation of powers.
“Firstly, it would be best that we take a hard look at the separation of powers embodied in the Constitution. We cannot interfere in the work of the SC in the same way that they cannot interfere with ours,” Sotto said.
In the letter to individual senators on Wednesday, May 2, the CFJ said the Senate should act to “prevent the SC from this impending judicial overreach.”
The group said in the first place, the SC was “not a trier of fact,” but the Senate as an impeachment court is.
” The Senate should assert its exclusive power under our Constitution to defend our democracy..We ask the Senate to call for a special session before May 11 and/or pass a resolution asking the SC to suspend its quo warranto proceedings and await the resolution of the impeachment,” the group said.
