Just like its committee head hinted last month, the House committee on Justice voted on March 8 to oust Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice (CJ) Maria Lourdes Sereno.
With a vote of 38-2 with zero abstentions, the Justice committee ruled the top magistrate to be impeached from her position, because of allegations on the apparent misdeclaration of her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN).
Representatives Kaka Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands and Kit Belmonte of Quezon City were the dissenters.
The head of the House committee on Justice Oriental Mindoro Representative Rey Umali said, “Lahat [ng ebidensiya ay] malakas naman eh. ‘Yung SALN, ‘yung sa tax, ‘yung violation ng collegiality ng Supreme Court, siguro ‘yung clustering. ‘Yung iba siguro iko-combine na lang into one article (All evidence are strong. The SALN, tax, the violation on the collegiality of the Supreme Court, maybe on the clustering. Others may be combined into one article),” in a press briefing.
In late February, Umali already hinted that the impeachment case could be escalated to the Senate.
“Ganoon po ang nakikita ko kasi maraming na-establish kami during the hearing at marami nang nalinawan doon sa issues. At ngayon hindi na nila tinitingnan ‘yung issue being hearsay dahil walong Justice po ‘yong humarap na masasakit po ang sinabi patungkol po kay Chief Justice (That is what we are seeing because we have established a lot during the hearings and a lot of the lawmakers already found clarity with the issues. Now they are not looking at the issue as a hearsay because eight Justices have surfaced against the Chief Justice),” Umali said in an interview with DZBB on February 26.
However, Sereno’s camp said that the vote was a not a surprise.
Her lawyer Jojo Lacanilao said, “This is not the end of it all, and the burden of proving the case is on the House, for the House to prove that the Chief Justice should be removed. We believe the Chief Justice is innocent and she can prove her innocence in the Senate.”