THE impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno before the Senate should begin by May, after hearings in the House are completed this quarter, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said Sunday.
“I think we can end the hearings. In fact, we have already started consolidating all [pieces of] evidence [and] testimonies,” Alvarez said, citing the timetable set by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House committee on justice.
Alvarez added, however, that Congress would accommodate more witnesses, such as the other members of the Supreme Court, to strengthen the case against Sereno.
“We cannot just take this hastily. Let us just say, we have a deadline. There are many others who still want to testify. Let us give them the chance to do so,” he said.
Alvarez again criticized Sereno for refusing to take part in the House hearings.
“What is Chief Justice Sereno doing? She doesn’t want to confront the truth. She doesn’t want to face the committee on justice to explain her side. Now, isn’t it true that if you’re innocent, you’re ready face anyone to answer the accusation against you, but if you’re hiding something and you know you have done wrong, naturally, you’ll be afraid (to face it)?”
He said Sereno should stop from accusing Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and her other colleagues of testifying against her because of personal grudges.
Lawyer Lorenzo Gadon has accused the chief justice of a betrayal of public trust, corruption and other high crimes in his impeachment complaint.
He accused Sereno of filing an untruthful declaration of her wealth—the same basis used by the Aquino administration to impeach and oust then Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Over the weekend, Senate Miniority Leader Franklin Drilon dismissed the likelihood of a plebiscite in May to shift to a federal form of government because the impeachment complaint against Sereno is set to be endorsed to the Senate in the same month.
In an interview over radio dwIZ, Drilon said senators will have no time to work on constitutional amendments once Sereno’s impeachment reaches the Senate.
“From my experience, once we become an impeachment court, we cannot work on other matters,” Drilon said.
“For the rest of the year, the remaining six months of 2018, we cannot do anything so I cannot see how we can amend the Constitution, which is controversial,” he added.
The last impeachment trial held by the Senate was against Corona, which lasted five months—Jan. 16 to May 29 in 2012.
Based on Alvarez’s projection, the new federal charter could be ready for a referendum, simultaneous with the scheduled Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in May.
The Duterte administration has been pushing for a shift to a federal form of government to address issues particularly in strife-torn Mindanao.
But Drilon said he was confident that his fellow senators, particularly 11 colleagues, would not vote for the constitutional amendments needed for a new federal charter.
“You cannot face the public and say that you agreed to the amendment because your term would be extended. I think my colleagues in the Senate will not do that,” Drilon said.
“As of now, there is no official proposal in the Senate for a federal system. This proposal is very complicated. They cannot just approve it once given to them,” he added.
Drilon said cancelling the mid-term elections in 2019 will also bring conflicts of interest for lawmakers who have maximized their terms as mandated by the Constitution.
If the plebiscite happens on May, it will require three-fourths of Senate votes to be in favor of federalism— for it to push through.
“If we need three-fourths of the votes, 11 senators have possible conflict of interests,” he said.
At the Senate, Drilon said five senators are ineligible for reelection due to term limits – Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Senators Francis Escudero, Gregorio Honasan, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Loren Legarda.
Senators Juan Edgardo Angara, JV Ejercito, Cynthia Villar, Nancy Binay, Benigno Aquino IV, and Grace Poe are eligible for reelection.
Under the Constitution, senators are limited to two consecutive six-year terms, while members of the House of the Representatives are limited to three consecutive three-year terms.
At the same time, Drilon said senators will insist on voting separately if Congress is convened as a constituent assembly.
“No one in the Senate will agree to a joint voting. We will insist on separate voting. The Congress can propose amendments to the Constitution using the regular lawmaking procedure,” Drilon said in an interview on dzBB on Sunday.
He said it appears the House plans to rubber stamp Malacañang plans to amend the Constitution through joint voting that would render the Senate vote practically irrelevant.
Drilon said Congress vote on martial law in Mindanao should “serve as an example of how Senate’s power could be reduced to nothing if joint voting is followed.”