AN ANTI-CRIME watchdog group filed an impeachment complaint against Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno Wednesday, but failed to get any congressman to endorse it—a constitutional requirement for the process to move forward.
The complaint filed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption accused Sereno of committing a culpable violation of the Constitution when she issued an order creating the new Judiciary Decentralized Office and reopened the Regional Court Administration Office in Western Visayas in the absence of an authority from the court en banc.
The VACC also alleged that Sereno violated the Constitution when she appointed lawyer Solomon Lumba. The group said the law provides that appointive government officials shall not hold another public post unless provided for by law.
The group also questioned Sereno’s appontment of lawyer Brenda Jay Mendoza as Philippine Mediation Center Office chief by a mere memo and without concurrence from the rest of the justices.
The VACC also alleged that Sereno committed an illegal act when she granted members of her staff travel allowances charged to the Supreme Court without court en banc approval.
The group added that Sereno betrayed the public trust over her failure to fill up some vacant positions in the Supreme Court, such as deputy clerk of court and chief attorney, which have been vacant for more than three years; and the two positions for assistant court administrator, which have been vacant for over four years.
Sereno, an appointee of former President Benigno Aquino III, is the third chief justice to face an impeachment case.
Retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide faced impeachment in 2007 but the complaint did not prosper.
But efforts by Aquino to unseat ate Chief Justice Renato Corona succeeded as he was found guilty of failing to disclose bank accounts in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth.
Lawyer Larry Galdon, president of the PDU30 Constitutional Reform to Federalism, said he also planned to file a complaint over the P5.1 million spent to buy a Toyota Land Cruiser for the Chief Justice.
“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,” Gadon said in his 54-page impeachment complaint.
Gadon also alleged that Sereno committed a culpable violation of the Constitution when she failed to truthfully disclose in her SALN the “exorbitant lawyer’s fees” of $745,000 or P37 million that she received from the government.
Gadon also accused Sereno of violating the Constitution when she manipulated the shortlist of the Judicial and Bar Council 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.”
Sereno also betrayed the public trust when she obstructed justice by prevailing upon a lower court judge not to issue a warrant of arrest against Senator Leila de Lima, who faced drug charges filed by the Justice Department.
Sereno refused to comment on the impeachment complaints.
Court spokesman Theodore Te said Sereno would address the allegations in the complaints at the appropriate time and venue.
“There will be an appropriate time for comments on things like those. This is not that time,” he said in a text message. With Rey E. Requejo