THE camp of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Monday rejected a call for her to sign a bank secrecy waiver to allow the examination of her bank accounts amid allegations of undeclared wealth in the impeachment case against her before the House of Representatives.
Sereno’s spokesperson Josa Deinla said the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth submitted by Sereno to the Supreme Court already included a waiver allowing the Office of the Ombudsman and other bodies to examine the Chief Justice’s assets.
“That [waiver] is no longer necessary because the standard form of SALN authorizes the Ombudsman and other investigative bodies to conduct an examination,” Deinla said in response to the challenge issued by lawyer Lorenzo Gadon, who had filed the impeachment complaint against Sereno.
The allegations in the impeachment complaint include her failure to declare in her SALN some P30 million that she earned as one of the government counsels in the arbitration case involving the expropriation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3, when she was still a private lawyer.
The non-declaration of assets in SALN was the same ground that led to the impeachment and ouster of the later Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012 under the previous administration. The Senate, sitting as impeachment trial court, had voted 20-3 and found him guilty of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.
Sereno’s camp played down the allegation, saying she used the money to buy a “modest home and modest vehicle” and declared them and all that was left in her SALNs.
The chief justice’s lawyers also opposed Gadon’s proposal to make President Duterte a special private prosecutor should the impeachment case proceed to trail in the Senate, saying this would be an encroachment on the exclusive power of the House of Representatives to act as prosecutors in an impeachment trial.
“The President has no role in such a political exercise,” added lawyer Aldwin Salumbides.
Sereno’s camp said there is nothing wrong with the move of the Senate to start reviewing the impeachment trial rules even pending the proceedings in the House of Representatives.
They said it actually shows “good leadership” on the part of Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III.
“It only shows the ability of our senators to be pro-active. I think there is nothing wrong with preparing for such possibilities. It’s just a plan that is being set in motion as preparation. So, I think that’s good leadership,” Salumbides said.
Pimentel earlier told the camp of Sereno that the Senate was reviewing its impeachment trial rules to ensure it would be more than just a numbers game.
A Palace official, meanwhile, labeled as “pure nonsense” Gadon’s proposal that Duterte be made a special prosecutor during the impeachment trial of Sereno.
“The proposal to make the President act as Special Prosecutor in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno is pure nonsense. The President is constitutionally prohibited [from holding] any other office during his tenure,” Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said in a statement. With John Paolo Bencito
