THE Supreme Court on Tuesday approved the release of court records and documents requested by the groups seeking to oust Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno in their bid to boost their impeachment complaint against her before the House of Representatives.
During its en banc session, Sereno’s 14 colleagues in the high court voted unanimously to grant the request of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption and the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution Inc. for certified copies of several documents that allegedly would support their allegations against her.
Sereno inhibited from the deliberations since she is the subject of the impeachment complaint.
Among the records ordered released to the VACC and VPCI were the high court’s rejection of Sereno’s order in 2012 to reopen a regional constitutional administrative office in Cebu without the approval of the members of the Supreme Court.
The high court also granted the release of Sereno’s memorandum appointing lawyer Solomon Lumba as the head of her staff and the subsequent letter of Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio withdrawing his signature in the appointment over an internal issue.
However, the high court denied the groups’ request to release the memorandum of Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro questioning Sereno’s orders that lacked the approval of the whole Court as provided under the rules, including the appointment of a Philippine Judicial Academy official and the provision for the travel allowances of her staff.
The tribunal stressed that such memorandum could not be released pending a resolution from the Court.
De Castro’s internal memorandum assailed the appointment of Brenda Jay Mendoza as Philja chief of office for the Philippine Mediation Center, which she said violated their Administrative Order 33-2008 that required the appointment for the post to be approved by the Supreme Court collegially.
She also assailed Sereno’s grant of a foreign travel allowance to the members of her staff without the approval of the full court.
She said Sereno’s staff members were being given travel allowances even when their trips abroad were on “official time,” which should not involve the expenditure of public funds.
Lastly, De Castro questioned the “long delay” in the appointment to the vacant key positions in the high court pending before Sereno’s office, “which is prejudicial to the best interest of service.”
The VACC and VPCI asked the high court to provide them with copies of the documents after they filed the impeachment complaint last week, but no lawmaker came forward to endorse it.
An impeachment complaint needs to get the endorsement of a sitting congressman before it can be referred to the House committee on justice for a hearing.
In their complaint, the groups accused Sereno of violating the Constitution by issuing an administrative order creating the new Judiciary Decentralized Office and reopening the Regional Administration Office in Western Visayas in the absence of an authority from the high court.