THE SINS OF THE PAST CAN COME BACK TO HAUNT US
Umali and Malacañang are scrambling because their resignation ploy didn’t work.
Whatever leaders of Congress of the Executive branch are saying these days, the fact is, as far back as November, the government of President Rodrigo Duterte was calling on Chief Justice Ma Lourdes Sereno to resign.
Sereno has taken an indefinite leave, by all accounts forced on her by practically all members of the SC en banc.
In the process, she and her spokespersons made a costly error that cost her a reprimand from colleagues.
Sereno has apologized, but the furror puts her at a disadvantage as she prepares for the Senate impeachment trial.
The House of Representatives still has to officially approve the articles of impeachment, but nobody in the Philippines doubts that Duterte’s legislative thugs can’t ram through their patron’s wish.
Sereno says she will use her leave to prepare for the Senate trial. She and her lawyers, of course, express confidence in proving her innocence.
Squeeze play
A Senate trial means that Sereno’s detractors will come under more intent scrutiny from the political opposition and even the more independent members of the majority.
The failure by congressional leaders to pressure Sereno into resigning is a (very fragile) victory for democracy.
Had they forced a resignation, it would have been a dangerous precedent. The government is already using all avenues, including charter change, to wrest control of the judiciary.
Read: Cha-cha may lead to ‘repressive powers’ for Duterte, says Colmenares
This will be the second impeachment trial of a Philippine Chief Justice.
It started with the government wanting to oust a man from his post. President Benigno Aquino III used every opportunity to tell Filipinos that Renato Corona, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was a man undeserving of his post.
In the run-up to Corona’s impeachment in 2011, legislators in former Aquino’s Liberal Party majority also urged his resignation.
They had already succeeded using the threat of an impeachment trial to force the resignation of former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.
The main beef of anti-Duterte and pro-Sereno groups is, the railroading by the House of Representatives of the impeachment process.
The initial hearings at the House Committee of Justice were almost farcical, with complainant Larry Gadon, a lawyer facing a disbarment case, presenting news clippings as evidence and giving contradictory answers from day to day.
Sereno stayed away and but asked that her lawyers be allowed to grill Gadon. She was rebuffed by the Committee.
But slowly, the complaint jelled as the committee called in a wide array of witnesses. And one by one, in an unprecedented display of subservience to the legislature, Sereno’s SC colleagues appeared to testify against her.
Outside of Congress, executive officials made her a constant target of potshots. Senior lawmakers used every hearing to maximize attacks against the Chief Justice. Duterte himself has used every possible forum to paint Sereno as corrupt.
No moral high ground
That the Duterte government has made justice institutions main targets for its attacks is true.
Duterte has attacked every personality or organization that has tried to confront him on the issue of thousands of extra-judicial killings linked to his bloody anti-narcotics crackdown.
Sereno earned his ire when she questioned Duterte’s claims of judges being among high narcotics targets.
Unfortunately for the chief justice, detractors of impeachment don’t exactly hold the moral high ground.
Corona, the man Sereno replaced — in controversial fashion, as she is very much junior compared to other justices — was, by all accounts, beloved of SC personnel.
Five years is very short where institutional memory is concerned.
But there’s an even more important factor that dims the power of current railroading charges.
It is that the Aquino-dominated House of Representatives can hardly be challenged in the bamboozling department.
December 13, 2011 — Amando Doronilla, Philippine Daily Inquirer
“Congressional allies of President Aquino impeached Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona on Monday in an unprecedented record time of one day.
With stunning swiftness unparalleled in the history of impeachment in this country, 188 members of the House of Representatives voted to impeach Corona for interfering in the prosecution of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, comprising more than one-third of the 285 House members, a requirement under the Constitution to impeach a high official.
The rushed impeachment broke several impeachment procedures and historical precedents. First of all, it made Corona the first Filipino chief justice to be impeached; the impeachment marked the first attack on the independence of the Supreme Court through the combined power of both the Executive and Legislative departments in a conspiracy that unleashed a juggernaut to crush the head of the high court as well as to make it subservient to the Chief Executive.
Senate trial minefields
An impeachment trial is a political event, certain to create more divisions in an already fractious nation.
But in trial, Sereno’s defense team will be allowed to question prosecution witnesses and evidence, aside from presenting her defense. Friendly lawmakers could also come to her aid, though the sometimes comic efforts of Duterte’s allies could hurt her, simply because they prefer sensational attacks to the nuances of facts.
In one sense, the government also comes under trial, at least in the public eye.
But it will be tough going for Sereno. It’s almost certain that pro-Duterte senators will be using the playbook of the Aquino senators in the Corona impeachment trial.
The second part of this series will tackle lessons from the Corona senate trial. Here’s hoping Sereno doesn’t make the same mistakes her predecessor did.
