House opposition lawmakers seek impeachment of 7 SC justices
AT least four opposition lawmakers from the House of Representatives will file an impeachment complaint against seven Supreme Court justices who voted to oust former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno by granting the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida.
An advisory sent to journalists by Lagman’s office on Thursday morning said that the seven High Court magistrates namely: Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam, Andres Reyes Jr, and Alexander Gesmundo will each face an impeachment for the same reason of committing culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust in connection with their May 11 decision ti remove Sereno via quo warranto.
Of the seven, four—Bersamin, De Castro, Peralta and Reyes—have applied to succeed Sereno. The eighth Supreme Court justice who voted in favor of quo warranto is Samuel Martires, but he is expected to be spared from the complaint since he is now the Ombudsman.
“The complainants are Rep. Edcel C. Lagman [of Albay], Rep. Tomas Villarin [of Akbayan party-list], Rep. Gary Alejano [of Magdalo party-list]and Rep. Teddy Baguilat, Jr. [of Ifugao],” the advisory read.
The opposition lawmakers and even the Integrated Bar of the Philippines have assailed the Supreme Court’s unprecedented decision on the Sereno case, arguing that it is illegal since the Constitution provides that impeachable officials such as the Chief Justice can only be removed via impeachment and that the House and the Senate has the sole authority to initiate and resolve impeachment cases, respectively.
Calida filed the quo warranto against Sereno on the grounds that she failed to meet standards of integrity and probity when she did not submit her complete Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth during his tenure as faculty member of the University of the Philippines College of Law to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) when Sereno applied for the Chief Justice post in 2012.
Sereno denied this and contended that she significantly complied with the submission of SALNs as required by the JBC.
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