Supreme Court associate justices Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam, and former associate justice Arturo Brion will likely attend the impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on December 11.
Mindoro Oriental Representative Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House Committee on Justice, said the magistrates have already sent feelers that they would participate in the proceedings next week.
"They intimated their availability on December 11. Justice Jardeleza, Justice Tijam, former Justice Brion," Umali told reporters.
Asked when Associate Justice Teresita De Castro was coming back to face the committee, Umali said, "Again, on the 11th."
De Castro already testified last Wednesday as regards Sereno's alleged manipulation of certain Supreme Court resolutions.
Umali announced the likely attendance of the justices when he announced that the committee was pushing back its timetable on the finding of probable cause on the impeachment complaint against Sereno due to schedule delays and availability of resource persons.
In an ambush interview on Monday, committee panel chair Reynaldo Umali said they may determine probable cause on the complaint against Sereno in January next year.
"January na siguro," Umali told reporters.
Umali earlier set the timetable of determining probable cause before December 13 — the last day of session before Congress takes a break for the holiday season — when their panel report on the impeachment proceedings would be taken up in the plenary for voting.
Umali cited the lost session days due to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit last month.
"Wala. Cannot be e. Hindi kami aabot no matter what we do," he said.
The lawmaker also pointed to the delay of the Supreme Court in promulgating their decision to allow justices and court personnel to attend the House proceedings as being a factor in the impeded schedule.
"Although they already gave a press briefing of allowing the court personnel and justices to testify, yung ibang resource persons requested that they be allowed to testify only after the decision is promulgated. Nagagamit tuloy na reason for them not appearing," he said.
"I'd like to urge the Supreme Court to immediately promulgate para malinaw na yung way forward on this," he added. —NB, GMA News
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