THE House of Representatives will act on the impeachment complaint filed against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno as soon as the complaint is endorsed by any lawmaker, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said Wednesday.
He made the statement after the group Volunteers against Crime and Corruption filed a substitute impeachment complaint against Sereno that contains several court records and documents that supposedly would support it.
Alvarez said the House will process the impeachment complaint as soon as it becomes a verified complaint.
“We are now processing the impeachment complaint. We will find out if it is sufficient in form and in substance,” Alvarez told reporters.
The VACC filed its substitute impeachment complaint against Sereno on Tuesday.
The group led by Dante Jimenez accuses Sereno of violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust, but not one House member has endorsed its complaint.
Alvarez said the Office of the Speaker would fulfill its mandate to dispose of the impeachment complaint provided at least one complainant endorsed it.
“The House committee on justice will conduct committee hearings on the complaint, especially now that the Supreme Court was the one which issued the certified true copies of court records and documents as bases for the allegations of the complaint. We need to deliberate on the complaint,” Alvarez said.
Jimenez, along with Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution Inc. lawyer Eligio Mallari and former Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto Paras called for Sereno’s ouster.
In the substitute complaint, Jimenez and his colleagues attached the certified true copies of court records and documents that the VACC and VPCI had sought, and which all of Sereno’s 14 colleagues had unanimously approved.
Some of the records turned over to the VACC and VPCI were the high court’s revocation of Sereno’s order in 2012 to reopen a regional constitutional administrative office in Cebu without the approval of the high court.
The high court also permitted the release of Sereno’s memorandum appointing lawyer Solomon Lumba as her staff head and the subsequent letter of Justice Antonio Carpio withdrawing his signature in the appointment over an internal issue.
The VACC accused Sereno of violating the Constitution when she issued an order creating the new Judiciary Decentralized Office and reopening the Regional Court Administration Office in Western Visayas in the absence of an authority from the court en banc.
The VACC also claims that Sereno violated the Constitution when she appointed Lumba.
The group claims that appointive government officials are not allowed to hold another public post unless provided for by law.
The group has also questioned Sereno’s appointment of lawyer Brenda Jay Mendoza as head of the Philippine Mediation Center Office without the concurrence of the court en banc.
The VACC also claims that Sereno committed an illegal act when she granted the members of her staff travel allowances without the approval of the court en banc.