The camp of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Monday slammed the testimonies of the magistrates of the Supreme Court (SC) who appeared before the House justice committee’s hearing on the impeachment proceeding filed against her.

During the impeachment proceedings, Associate Justices Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam, and retired Associate Justice Arturo Brion on Monday made their first appearance before the House justice panel.

Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, on the other hand, made another appearance at the continuation of the proceeding.

Lawyer Jojo Lacanilao, one of Sereno’s spokespersons, reiterated that the statements of witnesses in the House hearings, including Clerk of Court Felipa Anama and Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo – De Castro and Noel Tijam, only bolstered the perjury made by Atty. Larry Gadon in claiming that Tijam was the member-in-charge of the administrative case involving the request of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II regarding the transfer of Maute cases.

“Contrary to Gadon’s claim that Justice Tijam was the member-in charge of the transfer of Maute cases, Justice Tijam revealed that he was not the member-in-charge and that it was his understanding that the case was assigned to Chief Justice Sereno,” he explained.

They added the Chief Justice was the Member-in-Charge for this administrative matter and she did not and could not have “caused the matter to be raffled to her.”

“The Chief Justice is not the head, and is not even a member of the Raffle Committee. She has no participation at all in the raffle of cases,” the camp of Sereno said in a statement.

Tijam accused Sereno of “dilly-dallying” the resolution of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II’s request in May to have the cases tried in a court outside Mindanao by not bringing it immediately to the attention of the SC en banc.

De Castro, who is a member of the raffle panel, said the Maute case was not actually raffled on June 5, which was inconsistent with Sereno’s claim that she was the member in charge of the case...Read More Here>>



Source: politics