Before House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez asserted there is probable cause to impeach Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, critics already slammed the so-called case against her as a cause for her overthrow, not a call for justice.
The Speaker’s recent word sounds like a brazen indicator of political vendetta against the Chief Justice.
He vouched for the quality of the case against Sereno when his colleagues are still determining whether there is probable cause to impeach her.
How do House justice committee members feel about this?
Will the likes of Deputy Speaker Gwendolyn Garcia of Cebu’s third district sit up and protest their leader’s having jumped the gun on them?
Perhaps not.
Perhaps power isolates some leaders that they could not care less if they are perceived as villains in a reality show about how to cloak attacks on democratic institutions with a veneer of legality.
The walls of such isolationism must crumble lest our representatives, eaten by their corporate monologue institutionalize misrepresenting the people.
We therefore appeal to the men and women of Congress: Listen to those who keep vigil over our democracy.
The Movement Against Tyranny assails “the railroading of the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Sereno,” as an act that undermines the constitutional system of checks and balances and seeks to intimidate critics of the President.
The Coalition for Justice warns that “a rigged process is ultimately a mockery of the Constitution and sets democracy for a fall.”
The National Union of People’s Lawyers and National Council of Churches of the Philippines chimed the House justice committee’s denial of the request made by Sereno’s counsel to cross-examine witnesses against her.
Lawyer Lorenzo Gadon swore that he had personal knowledge of the content of his complaints of culpable violation of the Constitution, high crimes and betrayal of public trust (in reality administrative matters best settled in the High Court), against Sereno.
He did and does not.
Glaring perjury should have opened the House justice committee’s eyes.
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