AN IMPEACHMENT complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno was submitted by an anti-crime group on Wednesday, but it has yet to be formally endorsed by a member of the House of the Representatives to bring it up for hearing.
The Volunteers against Crime and Corruption (VACC), led by its president Dante I. Jimenez, is seeking to unseat Ms. Sereno on grounds of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.
The VACC said that Ms. Sereno “culpably violated the constitutional provision that ‘appointive government officials shall not hold another public post provided by law,’” by appointing lawyer Solomon F. Lumba as her “Staff Head II.” Mr. Lumba is an assistant professor at the government-owned University of the Philippines College of Law.
The group also said in their complaint that Ms. Sereno violated the Constitution “in issuing an administrative order creating the new Judiciary Decentralized Office (JDO) and reopening the Regional Court Administration Office (RCAO) in western Visayas in the absence of an authorization from the Court en banc.”
Other issues raised by the VACC are: appointment of Brenda Jay A. Mendoza as Philja Chief of Office for the Philippine Mediation Center (PMC); “long delay” of appointments in key positions in the Supreme Court; and grant of travel allowances to the staff of the Office of the Chief Justice without the approval of the high court.
These were the same concerns raised in an internal memorandum signed by Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, flagging several administrative orders issued by Ms. Sereno.
“In these lights, it behooves the (House of Representatives) to exact accountability from [Ms.] Sereno,” the VACC said.
The Supreme Court has yet to release a statement on the complaint. — Kristine Joy V. Patag
