Sereno impeachment raises tension in divided SC

The impeachment case against Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno seems to have taken its toll on some Supreme Court (SC) executives.

Two administrative officials of the high court involved in the controversial hiring of an IT consultant in Sereno’s office allegedly quarreled recently.

The issue of the IT consultant was among 27 allegations in the impeachment complaint filed against the Chief Justice before the House of Representatives.

Reports reaching the chambers of the SC justices said that Deputy Court Administrator Raul Villanueva and Assistant Court Administrator Ma. Regina Adoracion Filomena Ignacio had a spat and hurled invectives at each other.

Villanueva was head of the SC bids and awards committee when IT consultant Helen Perez-Macasaet was hired.

Ignacio made a report that found “lapses” in the contract.

“It was a shouting match between DCA Raul and ACA Gina. There are similar incidents involving other officials,” an insider told The STAR.

The source, who requested anonymity for participating in the resolution of the pending administrative issue before the SC, admitted that many officials have been tagged as either pro- or anti-Sereno, after they testified in the impeachment hearings.

“The Court has never been this divided,” lamented the source.

Both Villanueva and Ignacio were summoned to the impeachment proceedings and will attend the hearing on Feb. 7.

They will testify on the Macasaet hiring, which Ignacio recommended voided in her report to the SC for alleged lapses in the process.

Ignacio, tapped by the justices to review the contract, found that the deal violated existing laws and rules of the Commission on Audit because it did not undergo public bidding.

Macasaet, who allegedly has ties with Sereno, was paid P10 million for her service. The amount was much higher than the salary of the justices.

The contract, which covered six periods of six months each — from October 2013 to June 2016 — involved providing technical and policy advice to the Office of the Chief Justice and Management Information Systems Office of the Supreme Court regarding the implementatiom of enterprise information systems plan and related information communication technology projects.