Three opposition lawmakers on Thursday filed an impeachment complaint against the seven Supreme Court (SC) justices who voted to oust Maria Lourdes Sereno as Chief Justice by granting a quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida.
PHOTO BY RUY L. MARTINEZ
Representatives Edcel Lagman of Albay, Teddy Baguilat of Ifugao and Gary Alejano of Magdalo party-list lodged the impeachment complaint against Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam, Andres Reyes Jr., and Alexander Gesmundo for culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust in connection with their May 11 decision booting Sereno out via quo warranto.
Rep. Tomasito Villarin of Akbayan party-list, one of the complainants, was not around during the filing of the complaint because he was not feeling well.
The complaint is anchored on a constitutional provision that states that impeachable officials such as the Chief Justice can only be removed via impeachment and that the House of Representatives and the Senate have the sole authority to initiate and resolve impeachment cases, respectively.
Of the seven SC justices, four--Bersamin, De Castro, Peralta and Reyes — have applied to succeed Sereno.
Lagman said the impeachment complaint against the four justices aspiring to be the next Chief Justice should disqualify them from the race based on rules of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), which screens Chief Justice applicants.
“Under the JBC rules, a pending administrative or criminal case disqualifies a candidate for the Chief Justice post. An impeachment complaint is more than a criminal or administrative case,” he told reporters
“An impeachment [case] should be treated akin to an administrative case because it involves probity, integrity, competence and independence. These justices are not independent because they agreed to a Malacañang-inspired quo warranto petition. What the justices did is not only errant. It is also malevolent,” Lagman said.
The eighth SC justice who voted in favor of quo warranto was Samuel Martires, but he was not included in the complaint because he was named as the Ombudsman last month.
“I maintain that the seven Supreme Court justices who granted the quo warranto petition to remove Chief Justice Sereno have committed impeachable offenses: culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.
The filing of the impeachment complaint is the proper and legal venue to seek accountability on their actions,” Alejano said in a statement.
Calida sought Sereno’s ouster on the ground that she failed to meet standards of integrity and probity when she did not submit her complete Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) during her tenure as faculty member of the University of the Philippines College of Law to the JBC when she applied for the Chief Justice post in 2012.
Sereno, however, said she had submitted her SALN as required by the JBC.