House will impeach Sereno in May — Alvarez

FILE: Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. Sereno. (Photo by Center for Strategic & International Studies/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Responding to the call of President Rodrigo Duterte to fast-track the impeachment proceedings of the top magistrate, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said members of the House of Representatives will approve the committee report and the articles of impeachment against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno within one to two weeks after session resumes in May 15.

“Ang talagang intensyon namin diyan ay aprubahan sana iyan sa plenary bago kami mag-break noong nakaraang… itong break lang namin (Our intention was to approve these in the plenary before we took a break),” Alvarez said in an interview with GMA’s News To Go on Wednesday, April 11.

“Hindi lang umabot pero I’m sure, siguro pagbalik namin, baka first week or second week tapos na kami diyan (It just wasn’t finished on time but I’m sure when we resume, probably we will be done within the first or second week of the session),” he added.

According to Alvarez, at least one-third of House members are needed to approve the articles of impeachment and it will be brought to the Senate for trial.

The Justice panel on March 8 affirmed that there is probable cause in the allegations that the Chief Justice committed culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, corruption, and other high crimes.

On March 19, six drafts of the impeachment articles against Sereno were approved by the Justice committee.

Chair of the Justice committee of the lower chamber Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali said that the impeachment article drafts included 24 out of 27 of the “impeachable acts” by Attorney Lorenzo “Larry” Gadon.

Thirty-three of the members of the committee headed by Umali voted their approval of the drafts, while one dissented.

[READ: House panel approves impeachment articles vs Sereno]

Meanwhile, Duterte earlier said that he will request the Congress to speed up the top magistrate’s impeachment proceedings.

“I will see to it and after that, I will request the Congress go into the impeachment right away,” the President said on Monday before his flight to attend the Boao Forum for Asia in China.

“I’m putting you on notice that I’m your enemy and you have to be out of the Supreme Court (SC),” he added.

Sereno accused Duterte to be behind the moves to remove her from her post in the High Court through a quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida.

[READ: Duterte to Sereno: I’m your enemy]