Speaker sees 200 signatures vs Sereno
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez assured Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno yesterday that her impeachment will not be similar to that of her late predecessor Renato Corona, who was impeached right away by 185 congressmen in December 2011.
“If we’re talking of 200 congressmen who want to sign, we have that number. But we have to make sure that we have all the evidence we need. We don’t want a repeat of Corona’s case where they still have to look for evidence,” he told reporters in Filipino during a briefing in his office at the House of Representatives.
Alvarez justified his move to dissuade his colleagues from endorsing this early the impeachment complaints filed by lawyer Larry Gadon and the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption against Sereno.
“It would be unfair if we endorse it immediately to the Senate for trial. We need to be prepared to prosecute (at the Senate impeachment court). We need strong evidence,” he added.
In Corona’s case, all the Articles of Impeachment were amended and Congress ended up with a minor violation – an infraction of the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth. Under the law, a public official’s error in the SALN declarations is not a ground for impeachment.
The House needs at least 98 of its 294 lawmakers to endorse an impeachment complaint or onethird of its total membership. If achieved, the complaint will be directly sent to the Senate for trial where senators sit as judges.
The Sereno complaint has been endorsed by a total of 41 congressmen – 25 from the Gadon complaint and 16 from the VACC suit. The two cases will most likely be consolidated by the House committee on justice headed by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali.
Umali hinted earlier that they would allow the so-called “creeping impeachment” where complainants can muster the needed 98 signatures of congressmen for the complaint to be sent directly to the Senate for trial.
House members did the creeping impeachment in late 2000 during the time of former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, where lawmakers managed to gather the signatures via installment when Manuel Villar was still speaker.