{"id":120231,"date":"2017-09-29T03:05:31","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T07:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=120231"},"modified":"2017-09-29T03:05:31","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T07:05:31","slug":"sereno-asserts-right-to-cross-examine-impeach-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/09\/29\/sereno-asserts-right-to-cross-examine-impeach-witnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Sereno asserts right to cross-examine impeach witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_79786\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-79786\" style=\"width: 2048px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/8319565426_823acee075_k-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-79786\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/8319565426_823acee075_k-1.jpg\" alt=\"FILE: Sereno, through her lawyers, cited House rules allowing both \u201cexamination\u201d and \u201ccross-examination\u201d of witnesses during the determination of probable cause of the impeachment proceedings. (Photo by Center for Strategic and International Studies\/Flickr)\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/8319565426_823acee075_k-1.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/8319565426_823acee075_k-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/8319565426_823acee075_k-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/8319565426_823acee075_k-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-79786\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE: Sereno, through her lawyers, cited House rules allowing both \u201cexamination\u201d and \u201ccross-examination\u201d of witnesses during the determination of probable cause of the impeachment proceedings. (Photo by Center for Strategic and International Studies\/Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong> \u2014 The lawyers of Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Thursday filed before the House justice committee a letter asserting her right to confront and cross-examine witnesses against her.<\/p>\n<p>Sereno, through her lawyers, cited House rules allowing both \u201cexamination\u201d and \u201ccross-examination\u201d of witnesses during the determination of probable cause of the impeachment proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe humbly submit that under the House Rules, persons who would testify during the hearing would not be considered mere \u201cresource persons\u201d who would be questioned solely by committee members,\u201d the letter read.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose persons would be full-fledged witnesses, who would be examined by a proponent, and cross-examined by an opponent,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<p>Sereno also maintained her call to the House justice panel to dismiss the verified impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Larry Gadon against her.<\/p>\n<p>In a separate statement, lawyer Carlo Cruz, Sereno\u2019s spokesperson, said there are \u201calarming indications\u201d that she will be denied the right to cross-examination.<\/p>\n<p>Cruz called on Congress to \u201cbe fair\u201d and \u201cfollow their own rules\u201d as the impeachment proceedings unfold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Congress remains aligned with the objective of pursuing the truth and upholding due process and fairness, then it is likewise in their interest to uphold the Chief Justice and her legal team\u2019s right to cross-examination,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter all, cross-examination is a tool to ferret out the truth and to provide the Committee with a complete picture of the material facts, and not just the side of the complainant. It is the fair, legal, and right thing to do,\u201d he added.\u00a0<em><strong>(PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA \u2014 The lawyers of Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Thursday filed before the House justice &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":79786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[25296],"class_list":["post-120231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-supreme-court-sc-chief-justice-maria-lourdes-sereno","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes-and-christopher-lloyd-caliwan","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}