The House Committee on Justice on Thursday said it has found sufficient grounds to impeach Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno, even as the same panel formally junked a similar complaint lodged against Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres D. Bautista.
Rep. Reynaldo V. Umali of the Second District of Oriental Mindoro, the panel chairman, declared the impeachment complaint’s sufficiency of the grounds against Sereno after 25 members of the committee voted in favor and two against.
Umali said the panel would proceed to the next stage, which is the determination of probable cause, after Congress’s halloween break. The break will start on October 14 and will end on November 12. “The chairman hereby declares the complaint’s [sufficiency]. The complaint alleges sufficient ground for impeachment and, thereafter, we will now move to the next stage, which is the determination of probable cause,” Umali said.
The complaint filed by lawyer Larry Gadon contains four grounds, including corruption, culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes. The complaint also alleged 27 acts constituting the offenses charged against the Chief Justice.
“In the determination of probable cause, that is when we will have to go through it more methodically and we will have to look at each and every allegation to determine its sufficiency for purpose of impeachment,” Umali added, after lawmakers asked the committee to vote the 27 acts individually during the panel’s hearing.
The same panel also approved a committee report formally junking the impeachment complaint against Bautista.
Voting 19-2, the committe approved the committee report and a resolution declaring the impeachment complaint filed by former Rep. Jacinto Paras and lawyer Ferdinand Topacio as insufficient in form. The complaint was endorsed by Deputy Speaker Gwendolyn F. Garcia, Party-list Rep. Harry L. Roque Jr. of Kabayan and Cavite Rep. Abraham T. Tolentino of the Seventh District of Cavite.
According to Umali, the report will be transmitted to the House plenary for final approval.
Complainants Paras and Topacio accused Bautista of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution, amid allegations of P1- billion ill-gotten wealth by his wife Patricia Paz Bautista.
In the complaint, Paras and Topacio said, “Bautista culpably violated the Constitution and/or betrayed the public trust when he failed to truthfully, accurately, or completely disclose to the public his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth as required under Section 17, Article XI of the 1987 Constitution Anti-Graft and and Corrupt Practices Act, and Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards Act.”
The complainants also said Bautista also neglected his duties and responsibilities as head of the agency, particularly collecting and further processing of personal data, which led to unnecessary exposure of personal and sensitive information of millions of Filipinos, and obstructed justice when he cleared Smartmatic and Comelec information-technology specialists of any wrongdoing for the so-called script tweak during the consolidation/canvassing of results in the May 2016 elections, among
others.