Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Monday said the plan of a House of Representatives committee to have Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno arrested could trigger “a serious constitutional crisis.”
Congressmen wanted to compel Sereno to face the House Justice Committee that is looking into an impeachment complaint against her.
Drilon, who served as secretary of Justice under former President Corazon C. Aquino, said that since the primary purpose of the committee’s plan to subpoena the Chief Justice is to require her to testify for the prosecution in relation to the Articles of Impeachment filed against her, “This runs afoul of her constitutional right against self-incrimination.”
He cited Section 17, Article III of the Constitution, which, Drilon noted, clearly states that “no person shall be compelled to be a witness against himself.”
He advised the chairman of House Committee on Justice, Rep. Reynaldo V. Umali of the Second District of Oriental Mindoro, to “exercise extreme caution in using the coercive powers of Congress to issue a subpoena against Sereno,” adding that “there is no basis and [it] will provoke a needless constitutional crisis.”
The senator said the House Committee on Justice cannot force Sereno to attend and testify in an impeachment hearing against her.
“It cannot be done without triggering a constitutional crisis,” Drilon said, pointing out that “the power of the House of Representatives to issue a subpoena, motu proprio, cannot be used during the investigation of an impeachment complaint.”
He asserted that the power of Congress to serve subpoena and order the detention of a witness who disobeys the summon is allowed only in inquiries in aid of crafting legislation, but “not in impeachment proceeding.”
“An impeachment hearing is different from investigations in aid of legislation, where Congress is allowed to issue a subpoena and order the detention of a witness,” Drilon added. He explained that requiring Chief Sereno to “testify against herself would place her under the strongest temptation to commit perjury, and subject her to an extortion of confessions by duress.” Moreover, Drilon cautioned this will violate, not just Sereno’s constitutional rights, but also the principles of separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.