House panel bent on pursuing impeachment rap vs Sereno

The chairman of the House Committee on Justice said yesterday they are dead set on endorsing the Articles of Impeachment against Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno in December.

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House Committee on Justice said his panel remains on track in immediately disposing the impeachment complaint against the Chief Justice.

"We will really work it out. By December, we will endorse the Articles of Impeachment against the Chief Justice, " he said in an interview.

"Tuloy kami dun, we are on schedule, " Umali said.

The House leader said they will resume the impeachment hearings against Sereno after the Philippines' hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and related meetings.

Congress is on month-long Halloween break and will resume session on Nov. 20 after Malacañang issued the three-day holiday proclamation in mid-November.

The Umali panel is expected to conduct another hearing for the determination of probable cause to impeach Sereno when Congress resumes session on Nov. 20 after it found sufficient grounds to tackle the complaint.

Umali said they will discuss next month whether or not they would give in to the request of Chief Justice's camp to allow her lawyers to represent her and cross-examine the witnesses.

Sereno's camp filed a four-page motion asking the House Committee on Justice to recognize her constitutionally guaranteed rights to be represented by a legal counsel and to confront the witnesses against her through lawyers representing her in the impeachment proceedings.

When asked if the panel would find probable cause to impeach Sereno, Umali said, "the committee has yet to discuss that. I will not preempt."

But, he maintained that they can already impeach Sereno if one of 27 allegations in the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Larry Gadon has basis and constitutes an impeachable offense.

Gadon claimed that the Chief Justice purchased a R5.1-million brandnew and high-end 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser with a reported R4-million bulletproofing job, and failed to include in her statement of assets, liabilities and networth (SALN) the “exorbitant lawyer’s fees” amounting to $745,000 or

R37 million.