JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II is set to appear on Tuesday before the House Committee on Justice to testify in the impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno.
Aguirre told reporters that he would shed light on the issue of alleged delays encountered in the transfer of cases against terror group Maute.
Aguirre was supposed to appear before the House Committee on Justice on Monday, but asked to reschedule his appearance on Tuesday due to a prior engagement.
Lawyer Lorenzo Gadon, the complainant in the impeachment case against Sereno, accused the Chief Justice of manipulating and delaying the resolution of Aguirre’s request for transfer of Maute cases outside of Mindanao, among others.
Gadon’s allegation stemmed from Aguirre’s letter-request to Sereno in May to transfer the proceedings of detained Maute members facing rebellion charges to Metro Manila, due to security concerns and lack of adequate detention facilities.
On June 6 the Supreme Court (SC) assigned the Cagayan de Oro Regional Trial Court (RTC) to hear, try and decide all cases and incidents in connection with the Marawi attacks.
The Justice chief then made an appeal, citing security concerns forwarded by prosecutors assigned to conduct inquest proceedings and appear in the trial of cases and lack of adequate facilities inside Camp Evangelista, the headquarters of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division.
Aguirre’s request for Taguig RTC to try and resolve the cases was finally granted during an en banc session on June 27, but it was only made public by the SC on July 18.
“Sereno has been delaying the issuance and release of the resolution because she failed to get a majority vote on her desire to keep the Maute and similar cases in Cagayan de Oro City, to the detriment of the service,” the impeachment complaint stated.
“Indeed, the intentional delay on the part of respondent Sereno to issue and release the much-awaited resolution, only because she has lost in the vote, is another count of culpable violation of the Constitution,” it said.
Sereno denied the allegation, saying it was false and based on hearsay.
Meanwhie, the 15-man SC was asked on Monday to probe and if warranted, impose administrative sanctions against one of its members—Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro—for allegedly leaking confidential matters concerning the SC, which has become the basis for the filing of an impeachment case against Sereno.
In a five-page complaint, the Filipino Alliance for Transparency and Empowerment, through its spokesman Jo Perez, accused de Castro of violating Rules 9 and 10 of the SC Internal Rules and Section 9, Canon 4 of the New Code of Judicial Conduct pertaining to the confidentiality of information acquired by jurists in their judicial capacity.