MANILA, Philippines – Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Monday said he would ignore any ruling of the high court, should the latter choose to act on any petition that Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno may raise before her own peers in her bid to seek relief from impeachment rules that allegedly violate her constitutional rights.
In fact, Alvarez told reporters, if he is confronted with any such SC ruling on a petition by the Chief Justice against the House of Representatives, he would “tear it up and slap it on their faces; I’ll make them eat it.”
The camp of Sereno had repeatedly invoked her right to counsel in the ongoing impeachment proceedings led by the House Committee on Justice, but House leaders said impeachment is sui generis [in a class of its own] and the House is empowered to set its own rules. The Justice panel’s chief, Rep. Reynaldo Umali, on Sunday acknowledged that the committee members still have to vote on Sereno’s motion to overturn that House rule, as well as a similar position paper by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, but nonetheless said chances are dim that the vote in Wednesday’s (Nov. 22) hearing will overturn the House rule against counsel representation.
House leaders insist Sereno should simply show up personally and cross-examine the witnesses herself.
Sereno lawyers and Lagman have separately insisted that denying the chief justice the right to have her counsel represent her and cross-examine witnesses against her would violate the bill of rights.
At the next House Justice committee hearing on Wednesday, the panel members are to determine if there is probable cause in the complaint filed against Sereno by lawyer Larry Gadon.
Sereno’s legal team earlier floated the possibility that the issue of right to counsel may be raised before the Supreme Court to seek the en banc’s opinion on the debate.
Told about this, Alvarez, in a phone patch interview, said, “Mag-MCLE (Mandatory Continuing Legal Education) muna sila. Malinaw naman ang jurisdiction ng House of Representatives.”
Asked if the House would abide by any decision the Supreme Court may make should Sereno indeed file a petition before her own peers, the Speaker said, “Punitin ko ‘yan at isampal ko sa mukha nila, ipapakain ko [I’ll tear it up and slap it on their faces; I’ll make them eat it].”
Alvarez said Sereno should appear on Wednesday and answer the complaint filed by lawyer Lorenzo Gadon. “Kailangan niya itong sagutin nang personal, kung iyong abugado lang niya ang ipapadala niya, hindi namin inimbita ang abugado,” he said.
He also said Sereno should not stray from the issues at hand, such as alleging that due process was not being observed.
“Harapin niya ang reklamo sa kanya ngayon, and please argue on the basis of merits hindi iyong kung anu-anong issues, side issues na wala namang kinalaman dito sa impeachment complaint niya, at sana mag appear siya sa committee on justice, una, para masagot niya lahat ng reklamo sa kanya at pangalawa, magkakaroon siya ng pagkakataon para kumprontahin iyong mga complainants at witnesses,” Alvarez said.
[She should just face the issues squarely and argue on merits and not side issues totally unrelated to the impeachment complaint. And I hope she appears before the Justice committee to, one, answer the complaint against her and two, so she can confront the complainants and witnesses].
He noted that Sereno did not talk about injustice and lack of due process when then Chief Justice Renato Corona was impeached.
“Bakit, sinabi niya na iyan nung ini-impeach si Corona, noong siya ang nagbe-benefit? Ngayong siya ang nirereklamo, ang dami niyang sinasabi na ginagamit ng politiko,” he said.
“Wala tayong magagawa diyan. May nagreklamo, ano’ng gagawin ng House [There’s nothing we can do about this case. Someone filed a complaint, what is the House to do]? We have to process it, we are being mandated by the Constitution to process all impeachment complaints,” Alvarez added.
