(Eagle News) — The House Committee on Justice on Thursday found sufficiency of grounds in the impeachment complaint filed against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
Twenty-five members of the committee headed by Rep. Rey Umali voted to approve the motion of Misamis Occidental Rep. Henry Oaminal finding such sufficiency of grounds in the complaint filed by lawyer Larry Gadon.
Gadon had accused Sereno of culpable violation of the Constitution, corruption, other high crimes, and betrayal of public trust, when she allegedly failed to declare the “exorbitant” fees she received as a lawyer for the government in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, supposedly bought a Land Cruiser with government funds, and made decisions on her own without consulting the en banc.
The House panel had recently found the complaint sufficient in form and substance.
Two—Rep. Kakao Bag-ao and Rep. Kit Belmonte—voted against Oaminal’s motion.
Bag-ao had argued there was insufficiency of grounds as Gadon himself, she said, admitted that Sereno was allowed to buy a Land Cruiser in the first place.
“Dito pa lang sa Congress paglabas mo, marami nang Land Cruiser,” she had said.
Two letters
During the hearing, members of the House also decided to not act on letters sent by lawyers of the Chief Justice, in which they asked to be allowed to cross-examine resource persons who would testify against the Chief Justice.
The panel made the decision after noting that the letters were addressed specifically to Umali, and not to the committee as a whole.
Regroup
In a radio interview, Josa Deinla, a counsel of Sereno, criticized the House panel, noting that they should have tackled each allegation against the Chief Justice first before making a vote.
“Nakakakabahala,” she said.
But during the hearing, Majority House leader Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas said that House rules dictated that what she said be done in subsequent steps in the impeachment process.
According to Deinla, their lawyers would “regroup” to determine what their plan of action would be.