‘Magnificent 7’ holds 8 justices accountable
There is no stopping House opposition’s “Magnificent Seven” bloc to file an impeachment complaint against the eight Supreme Court (SC) justices who allegedly committed culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayals of public trust when they voted in favor of the “quo warranto” petition against former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
Akbayan partylist Rep. Tom Villarin said they agreed that some justices must be ousted not only because their decision was allegedly “based on personal biases” and had supposedly usurped the powers of Congress over the impeachment process.
Villarin said the justices should be held accountable not only for their favorable votes on the quo warranto petition against Sereno, but also because of their “specific acts.”
“On the issue of filing the impeachment complaint, we have agreed that there should be a move towards that...against the eight justices. The agreement is that, basically, the complaint would focus on the culpable violation of the Constitution of the justices and betrayal of public trust,” he said in a radio interview.
The SC justices who sided with the quo warranto petition include Justices Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, Samuel Martires, Noel Tijam, Andres Reyes Jr. and Alexander Gesmundo.
“The specific acts of these justices will be assailed hindi naman yong buong decision,” Villarin clarified.
He said there was culpable violation of the Constitution when some SC justices already subscribed to the impeachment process as the mode of removing a chief justice, but when they voted in favor of the petition, they rejected such process.
He said the justices also failed to fulfill their sworn oath to uphold the Constitution when they voted for the quo warranto petition “based only on their personal biases against the chief justice.”
“They violated the due process clause of our Constitution against Chief Justice Sereno when they became the accuser, the witness and they became the judge,” Villarin said.
“There was culpable violation because they usurp the powers of congress over the impeachment process and specific to that, likewise, they usurp yong constitutional duty ng Judicial and Bar Council to determine who would be qualified for justice ng Supreme Court,” he further explained.
Villarin accused the eight justices of betraying the public trust because of “willful negligence” on their part to fulfill their constitutional duty of upholding the sanctity of the Constitution.