House summons Sandigan justice.

A Sandiganbayan justice is expected to be the next prominent member of the judiciary to appear before the House panel hearing the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

The House justice committee chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali has issued a subpoena to Justice Geraldine Faith Econg, whose name cropped up at last Wednesday’s hearing on the impeachment complaint.

Supreme Court Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro identified her as the head of the Judiciary Decentralized Office Region 7 (JDO) created by Sereno through administrative order (175-2012) in November 2012.

Econg, a former Cebu City judge, was appointed by former president Benigno Aquino III to the anti-graft court in March 2016.

She was among the six Sandiganbayan magistrates whose appointments were questioned.

Based on De Castro’s narrative before the committee, Econg headed the JDO Region 7 that she said Sereno had unlawfully created.

De Castro claimed she and the other justices had been led to believe by Sereno that the latter was simply reviving the court sanctioned Regional Court Administration Office (RCAO).

Econg was designated JDO7 Program Management Office head and not under Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez.

“The creation of the JDO, with only one person in charge, will wreak havoc on the management and operation of the courts of Region 7... There are 146 judges in Region 7 and there are 1,435 personnel,” De Castro told the Umali panel.

“And the AO (by CJ) is ordering the transfer of all the records to the JDO with only Geraldine Econg manning the office,” she added.

“If I may clarify: the confusion came about because of the attempt of the CJ to give a legal basis for what she has done,” De Castro pointed out.

“She keeps referring to RCAO, when actually what she intends to do is establish another office, which is not under the office of the Court Administrator (Marquez),” she said.

Neither Sereno nor the SC as a whole is allowed under the 1987 Constitution to create a permanent office, as this power is solely a prerogative of Congress.

Also invited by the committee were Marquez, Associate Justices Noel Tijam and Francis Jardeleza, retired justice Arturo Brion, SC spokesman Theodore Te, clerks of court Felipa Anama, Enriqueta Vidal and Charlotte Labayano, among others.

The next hearing on Sereno’s impeachment is on Dec. 5.

Mountain out of molehill

For opposition Rep. Edcel Lagman, De Castro “made a mountain out of a molehill” in her statements before the committee on justice.

“Granting that the alleged deficiencies of the Chief Justice are true, the same do not constitute any impeachable offense like culpable violation of the Constitution, which must be deliberate and serious,” he said.

He said De Castro’s accusation that Sereno had departed from a full-court resolution on the creation of the JDO was based “on her uncorroborated recollection against the official notes of the Chief Justice documenting the proceedings in the executive session of the high court.”

“The JDO, like the Regional Court Administration Office (RCAO), is consistent with the Supreme Court antecedent resolutions to decentralize the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction to supervise inferior courts,” Lagman stressed.

On Sereno’s alleged issuance of a temporary restraining order not consistent with the draft De Castro submitted, Lagman stressed SC internal rules authorize the chief justice to issue such orders when the court is in recess.

“A draft is not cast in stone, so much so that it can be modified by the Chief Justice who is not a rubber stamp,” he said.

Lagman has been sitting through the hearings of the justice committee, though the panel has barred him and other non-members and Sereno’s lawyers from participating directly in its deliberations.

After De Castro’s testimony, Umali told reporters that it was too early to tell whether there was probable cause for the House to impeach Sereno.

On the other hand, complainant Lorenzo Gadon, visibly elated by the justice’s statements, declared: “Game over, CJ Sereno will be impeached.”

In previous hearings, Umali repeatedly pleaded with Gadon to come up with testimonial and documentary evidence to support his allegations against the Chief Justice.

He made the plea after several committee members complained that Gadon seemed to be using the hearings to fish for evidence and that the panel seemed to be helping him.

“Up to this point, you have shown no personal knowledge on most if not all of your allegations,” Umali told Gadon on Tuesday.

Earlier, he warned Gadon would be liable for perjury, since he declared under oath that his accusations were “of his own personal knowledge or based on authentic documents.”

The head of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines also said he was not convinced the charges against Sereno were enough to justify her impeachment.

“At first, we wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to attorney Gadon because he might really have something there. But as it is turning out now, the complaint appears to be just a summary of what has been publicized either through newspaper reports or through blind items or rumors about the inner workings of the Supreme Court,” Abdeil Dan Elijah Fajardo said in a television interview.

Meanwhile, Gadon said he felt vindicated by De Castro’s pronouncements before the House justice committee last Wednesday.

“The testimony of Justice Teresita de Castro is more than enough and sufficient to impeach Sereno. Her testimony, aside from being supported with documentary evidence, is tremendously strong since the issues under question are matters precisely within her knowledge as she herself was a direct participant in those matters of administrative orders and TRO resolutions – a first hand knowledge by direct participation,” he said.

He also called on Sereno to resign by Monday or face new corruption charges. “If she does not resign by Monday (Dec. 4), I am going to file graft and corruption cases against her and some of her minions in SC over the issue of the hiring of IT consultants which was found to be illegal,” he warned.

He cited an exclusive report of earlier this week on a fact-finding report submitted to the SC recommending the voiding of a P10million IT consultancy contract with Helen Perez-Macasaet for “lapses in the procurement process.”