THE CAMP of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P.A. Sereno in a statement on Monday, Oct. 30, called on public vigilance on the developing impeachment proceedings against her at the House of Representatives.

“Nananawagan po ako sa taumbayan na laging mapagbantay at tutukan ang mangyayaring proseso dahil mayroon silang kinalaman dito,” lawyer Josa Deinla, one of Ms. Sereno’s spokespersons, said in the statement based on a radio interview on Monday. (We are calling on the people to be vigilant and to watch closely the developing process because they have a stake here.)

Ms. Deinla was responding to House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez’s insistence that Ms. Sereno should personally appear before the House to cross-examine the witnesses against her.

She said Ms. Sereno, like any other ordinary respondent or accused, has the right to cross examine witnesses through her lawyers as part of “due process of law” under the Constitution.

Ms. Sereno’s legal team will insist on their motion to recognize her “constitutionally guaranteed rights” when the House committee on justice resumes its hearing on her impeachment case on Nov. 20, Ms. Deinla said.

In a motion filed with the House justice panel on Oct. 23, Ms. Sereno’s lawyers led by Alex Poblador sought confirmation from the committee that persons testifying as witnesses or as “resource persons” against the Chief Justice may be “cross-examined by her counsel on her behalf.”

“The right to be heard and be defended by counsel in all stages of a criminal proceeding is a very basic right of an individual, which not even this honorable committee, indeed Congress, can take away from a respondent in an impeachment proceeding,” the lawyers said.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR