Page 36 - SEPTEMBER 2017 A ISSUE

36 www.hello-philippines.com
2 SC JUSTICES WILLING TO TESTIFY IN SERENO
IMPEACHMENT CASE, SAYS COMPLAINANT
MANILA – Two male justices
of the Supreme Court are willing to
testify in the impeachment case against
Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno
that was recently filed at the House
of Representatives, the complainant,
lawyer Lorenzo Gadon, said.
“Ang pagkakaalam ko sa ngayon,
dalawa are already willing to
(testify), parehong lalake,” he said at
a news forum on Thursday, August 31.
Gadon said it was also possible that
a third justice of the high tribunal —
a female magistrate – would testify
against Sereno “if she will respect also
the processes of the House.”
On Wednesday, August 30, Gadon
field an impeachment complaint
against the Chief Justice, accusing her
of culpably violating the Constitution,
betraying public trust, and committing
corruption and other high crimes.
The complaint was endorsed by 25
House members.
According to Gadon, Sereno
could be impeached just with her
allegedly untruthful declarations in her
Statement of Assets Liabilities and Net
worth (SALN).
“Iyong [The] SALN from 2010 to
2017, shoot na [it’s already shoot]…
Malaki ang discrepancy sa SALN
[There are big discrepancies in the
Nofo Mneagrcootisatiownseaylteht
MANILA – Ilocos Norte Governor
Imee Marcos said on Thursday that there
are no negotiations yet for the return of
the family’s wealth.
“Wala pa, wala pa (There are none
yet),” Marcos told reporters at the
House of Representatives, where she
attended a hearing of the continuing
inquiry into the alleged misuse of the
province’s share of tobacco taxes.
At the same time, she said her
family believes President Rodrigo
Duterte “ang makakapgtapos ng
deka–dekadang kaso (will bring an end
Ilocos Norte Governor Imee
Marcos image from video by Lira
Dalangin-Fernandez, InterAksyon
SALN],” he said.
Gadon claimed that Sereno did
not include in her initial SALN the
P37 million lawyer’s fees from the
Philippine government as part of a team
of local private lawyers in the Philippine justices and judges, and the surviving
International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco)
case.
In his complaint, Gadon accused
Sereno of culpably violating the
Charter after she allegedly falsified the
following:
• Resolution of the Supreme Court
in A.M. No. 12-11-9-SC (Re: Opening
the Regional Court Administrative
Office in Region 7 dated Nov. 27,
2012); (Creating a Needs Assessment
Committee to Study the Necessity of
Decentralizing the Functions in Support
of the Supreme Court’s Power of
Administrative Supervision Over Lower
Courts dated dated Jan. 22, 2013)
• Temporary Restraining Order of
the Supreme Court in G.R. Nos. 206844-
45 (TRO in Coalition of Associations
of Senior Citizens in the Philippines v.
Comelec)
• Resolution of the Supreme Court
in A.M. No. 16-08-04-SC (dated August
16, 2016, ordering the Conduct of a
Motu Proprio Fact Finding Investigation
on Allegation of Four (4) Incumbent
Judges’ Involvement in Illegal Drugs)
to decades of cases)” against them.
On Tuesday, Duterte claimed the
Marcoses had agreed to return part of
their wealth, including “a few gold bars,”
supposedly to help ease the government’s
deficit spending.
He also quoted the children of the late
dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who placed
the country under martial law in 1972
and presided over a 14-year dictatorship
marked by widespread human rights
abuses and plunder until his ouster
by the 1986 People Power uprising, as
claiming their father was “protecting
NEWS
The complainant also claimed that
Sereno culpably violated the 1987
Constitution when she allegedly:
• Delayed action on the numerous
petitions for retirement benefits of
spouses of deceased magistrates
• Manipulated and thereafter
delayed the resolution of A.M. No. 17-
06-02-SC (the request of the Secretary
of Justice to transfer the Maute cases
outside of Mindanao) after realizing
that she lost in the voting
• Failed to truthfully disclose her
Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net
Worth
• Manipulated the shortlist of the
Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to
exclude then Solicitor General Francis
H. Jardeleza, for personal and political
reasons, thereby disgracing Jardeleza,
and curtailing the President’s power to
appoint him
• Manipulated the shortlist of
the JBC for the six vacancies in the
Sandiganbayan, for personal and
political reasons, thereby limiting the
President’s power to appoint the justices
of the Sandiganbayan
• Manipulated the shortlist of
the JBC for the two vacancies in the
Supreme Court, and failed to heed
the pronouncements of the Court in
o–n reImtuerne
the economy” when he spirited out a
fortune.
Duterte also said he would accept
that explanation “whether or not it’s
true.”
Various courts, including in the
United States, have ruled that the
Marcoses’ fortune was plundered from
country’s coffers and ordered them to
return the stolen wealth.
In all, the dictator and his family
are estimated to have stolen up to $10
billion.
While denying they were negotiating
with the government for the return of
the wealth, the Ilocos Norte governor,
the dictator’s eldest child, said their
family was in discussions.
But asked if they intended to return
anything to the government, she
replied: “Pag–usapan na lang ng mga
abugado (Lawyers will be discussing this).” to overstate her credentials
At a news conference on
Wednesday, August 30, Buhay party-
list Representative Lito Atienza said
that in early 2000, he was told by
the Marcos matriarch about the
gold bars supposedly in the family’s
possession. n Lira Dalangin-Fernandez,
InterAksyon | August 31, 2017, 10:06 AM
September 2017 – No. 17 • UK & Europe Edition
File photos of lawyer Lorenzo
Gadon (from InterAksyon) and
Chief Justice Maria Lourdes
Sereno (from Philstar)
Aguinaldo v. Aquino, thereby impairing
and curtailing the President’s power
to appoint the Justices of the Supreme
Court
• Lied and made it appear that
“several justices” requested that they
do away with voting for recommendees
to the Supreme Court, when in fact not
one Justice requested for it
• Manipulated the JBC, especially
its four (4) regular members, effectively
destroying the JBC as a constitutional
body mandated to fairly and impartially
screen and nominate applicants to the
Judiciary
Gadon likewise alleged that Sereno
had committed corruption when she:
• Used public funds to finance
her extravagant and lavish lifestyle
by ordering the purchase of a brand-
new luxurious Toyota Land Cruiser
2017 model as her personal vehicle,
amounting to more than P5 million
• Used public funds to stay in opulent
hotels when attending conferences in
the Philippines and abroad, and flying
on business or first class together with
her staff and security
• Used public funds to flaunt her
extravagance by unnecessarily bringing
a huge entourage of lawyers in her
supposed official foreign trips
He further claimed that the Chief
Justice had committed other high
crimes when she allegedly:
• Obstructed justice by ordering
the Muntinlupa Judges not to issue
warrants of arrest against Senator Leila
M. De Lima
• Perverted justice by meeting the
Presiding Justice and Associate Justices
of the Court of Appeals and instructing
them not to comply with the processes
of the House of Representatives and
to immediately question its processes
before the Supreme Court
• Failed to report her extortionate
attorney’s fees and pay the appropriate
taxes therefor
• Embellished her personal data
sheet in her application for the judiciary
He also alleged that Sereno betrayed
public trust when she:
• Hired an Information Technology
consultant with an excessive
compensation without public bidding,
in contravention of existing laws,
Commission on Audit rules, and public
policy
• Sent a strongly-worded but
misplaced reply to President Rodrigo
Roa Duterte on the Judges linked
to drugs thereby inviting a head-on
collision between the Presidency and
the Judiciary
• Prevented the Justices of the Court
of Appeals to do a courtesy call on
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte
• Attacked the imposition of Martial
Law in a commencement address,
while the validity of Martial Law was
still pending before the Supreme Court,
and later continued to participate in the
Court’s deliberations
• Issued a Joint Statement with the
Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeals
regarding CA-GR SP No. 151029,
which can very well be elevated to the
Supreme Court
• Practiced favoritism by allowing
key positions in the Supreme Court to
remain unfilled for a long period of time
in order to wait for her staff to qualify,
to the detriment of the service and
great demoralization of qualified Court
employees
• Appointed a key official without
authority or approval of the Court en
banc, in violation of Court-established
rules and the Constitution
• Gave her newly-hired staff
foreign travels and granted them travel
allowances for their foreign travels
without authority or approval of the
Court en banc, in violation of Court-
established rules and the Constitution
• Usurped the mandate of the Court
en banc by arrogating to herself alone
the running of the Supreme Court and
the Judiciary, thereby destroying the
Supreme Court as a collegial body n Lira
Dalangin-Fernandez, InterAksyon | August 31,
2017, 4:44 PM