THE camp of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno on Tuesday denied the accusation made by a fellow magistrate that she committed treason and disloyalty to the country by disclosing classified information on the Philippines’s recent arbitration case against China on the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
Sereno’s Spokesman Carlo Cruz said that contrary to the claim of Supreme Court Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza, it was not the Chief Justice who disclosed the memorandum filed by him for the Philippine government before the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, where the then-solicitor general omitted Itu Aba on the list of the government’s claims against China.
During the hearing of the House Justice Committee on the impeachment case against Sereno on Monday, Jardeleza alleged that Sereno committed treason when she disclosed a highly confidential memorandum in the WPS arbitration case in objecting to his earlier nomination for a post in the High Court and excluding him from the shortlist of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) for alleged question on integrity.
Itu Aba is the biggest feature in the Spratly group of islands and is being disputed by the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Taiwan.
In the leaked memorandum, Jardeleza submitted the position that Itu Aba is only a rock, but Sereno thinks otherwise, referring to it as an island.
Cruz said Sereno was just airing the concern raised by Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio during the JBC proceedings.