Lorenzo Gadon, the lawyer who filed an impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, said Sunday that the top magistrate's denying the allegations against her despite sufficient evidence shows a "psychology of a criminal."
In an interview on Super Radyo dzBB, Gadon was asked to comment on Sereno's latest statement that she will not resign amid the impeachment complaint, and that she has never done any malicious acts as magistrate of the highest court.
Gadon said: "E 'di syempre sasabihin niya na wala siyang ginawang masama kahit maliwanag doon sa testimony ni Justice De Castro ... na marami siyang ginawang katiwalian at paglabag sa batas ng konstitusyon."
Also he said that Sereno's deny and deny mindset is a typical psychology of a criminal.
"Natural 'yan sa psychology ng mga kriminal eh. If you will go to the Bilibid prison, lahat ng mga na-convict ng murder doon, rape, homicide, ang isasagot nila sayo ay isa lang, 'wala akong kasalanan,' 100 percent ng mga preso lahat sila sasabihin yun," he added.
Associate Justice Teresita De Castro said during the hearing of House Justice Committee on determining probable cause in the impeachment complaint against Sereno said that the top magistrate had issued a blanket temporary restraining order on the proclamation of winning party-list groups when she, as member-in-charge in the case, only recommended a TRO as regards the petition of the senior citizens’ party-list group in 2013.
Sereno's camp has yet to make comment of Gadon's statements.
Embattled Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno maintained on Thursday that she is not going to resign amid the impeachment complaint she is facing before the House of Representatives.
Addressing a youth forum at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, Sereno said she has never done any malicious acts as magistrate of the highest court of the land.
“Kaya’t ang gusto kong pag-usapan ngayon ay kung bakit ako nagdesisyon bagama’t several times na po ako sinabihan, quietly and in public, na mag-resign,” Sereno said.
“Sabi ko po lahat ng ginawa ko simula pa noong ako’y na-appoint na associate justice [in 2010] ay wala po ni isang bahid ng malisya. Lahat po ginawa ko nang tapat ang aking tungkulin. I went over and beyond the normal work load. Isinaalang- alang ko at hiningi ko ang tulong ng Diyos at umayos naman po ang maraming reporma sa judiciary,” she added.
Sereno expressed concern about the message a resignation will bring to the youth, as she referred to the lives of the country’s revolutionary forefathers, Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto.
Both men fought for the nation’s freedom at such a young age.
“Kung ako po ay ipinapaalis dahil lamang po sa agenda, poot, galit o anumang emotion o anumang reason na wala naman po akong ginagawa, paano na lang ang mga kabataan? Ano po ang mensaheng ipinapaaabot ng aking pagbibitiw? Ako po ba ay isang taong natatakot? Isa po ba akong taong dahil sa panggigipit ay bibigay?” Sereno said.
“Kung ganun po ang aking ehemplo eh di nakakahiya po ako kay Ka Andres Bonifacio who at the age of 20 plus led the first Philippine revolution o yung kanyang sidekick at brains na si Emilio Jacinto who was also 17 or 18 when he led also the triumvirate in the Katipunan. Nakakahiya ho sa kabataan kung ako ay bibigay,” she said.
‘Sacred trust from God’
The top magistrate said she was fighting the ongoing attempt to unseat her not because of “an ego issue,” adding she considered her post as a “sacred trust from God.”
“I was hoping that against a tide, isang alon ng mga nakikita na nating kasamaan, people will still believe in God, in goodness, in beauty, in wisdom, in honor, in dignity, in the right. I must make a stand because this is really a fight for what is good,” she said.
According to Sereno, the young people will never want a future where they see nothing “but violence, coarse language, foul charges, baseless accusations, and lies upon lies.”
“People cannot keep on dreaming in an environment where there is darkness. People cannot have that kind of environment. There will only be nightmares. And my role is not to add to your nightmares. My role is to say again and again that there is hope; there is hope for our country. God is good. God is there,” she said.
Apparently comparing her impeachment dilemma to being “in the middle of a storm,” Sereno said she is fighting for those who were “unjustly accused and maligned.”
Sereno also advised women to be confident and not allow themselves to be bullied.
“Find a way to make your message felt by these people. Sometimes you have to confront them. For all women, don’t allow yourself to be bullied. You should not be ashamed that you are a woman, that you are feminine,” she said during the open forum.
“Make them see your mind. Make them see your point and somehow they will learn to respect you,” Sereno added.
The chief justice is facing allegations of corruption, excessive use of judiciary funds, falsification of court resolutions, misdeclaration of statement of assets, liabilities and net worth, and manipulation of processes at the Judicial and Bar Council which she heads.
Sereno decided against appearing before the House justice committee impeachment proceedings to determine if there is probable cause in the complaint.
Her camp had also brushed aside Malacañang’s call for her to step down, saying the move was strong indication that impeachment case was flawed and weak.
The House Committee on Justice will resume its hearing on the impeachment complaint filed against Sereno next week.
Associate Justice Teresita De Castro on Wednesday said Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno issued a blanket temporary restraining order on the proclamation of winning party-list groups when she, as member-in-charge in the case, only recommended a TRO as regards the petition of the senior citizens’ party-list group in 2013.
In proceedings meant to determine probable cause in the impeachment complaint against Sereno, De Castro said that as member-in-charge she recommended that a TRO be issued on the disqualification of the Coalition of Association of Senior Citizens in the Philippines.
She said she became all the more concerned when she learned that the blanket TRO was being attributed to her recommendation.
“The tenor of the TRO is that the Comelec is stopped from proclaiming all remaining party-list organizations. Parang to-whom-it-may-concern itong kanyang TRO and so I was taken aback because I am being attributed to have recommended that, because the TRO says ‘upon the recommendation of the member-in-charge’, and I was the member-in-charge," De Castro said.
When De Castro wrote Sereno a letter voicing out her concern over the change, Sereno allegedly told her “there were other cases pending in court.”
De Castro said she wished she was at least consulted by the Chief Justice. But this isn’t her only objection, she said, for the resolution that came out was “procedurally infirm.”
“What I’m saying is that if she wanted to change, or changed my recommendation, then she should have issued it on her own authority without reference to the member-in-charge,” De Castro said.
“I cannot defend and support what she did because it was not really my recommendation,” she added.
De Castro said Sereno's actions as regards her recommendation was "grossly unprocedural."
"The Chief Justice only issues the TRO but she has no authority to act on the case on her own because the case was not raffled to her. I am the member-in-charge. I should be the one who should be consulted…” De Castro said after she was asked to comment on Sereno’s verified answer to this specific allegation.
“And it was grossly unprocedural because she included third parties who are not involved in the case since there was a blanket TRO against the Comelec to stop it from proclaiming party-list organizations,” she added.
The subject at hand is the second agenda item being discussed at the House Committee on Justice hearing to determine if the impeachment complaint against the top magistrate has probable cause.
This “TRO mess” was reported by the Manila Times in June 2013. The report alleged that Sereno endured a “harsh tongue-lashing” from her colleague De Castro.
“Exaggerated naman po,” De Castro said of the article.
It was also this article that was supposed to have been the basis of one of complainant Lorenzo Gadon’s allegations against the top magistrate.
According to Gadon, such an action of “tampering with” the said TRO amounts to a culpable violation of the Constitution.
However, the lawyers of the Chief Justice maintained their stand on the matter, saying that the Chief Justice is “expressly empowered” by the internal rules of the Supreme Court to “‘act’ on urgent cases requiring immediate action, including initiatory pleadings praying for the issuance of a temporary restraining order.”
This way, the Sereno camp’s statement said, the Chief Justice could have issued the TRO in question without taking in consideration a recommendation of the member-in-charge, who was in this case De Castro. But still, they said, Sereno “gave due consideration” to De Castro’s “Recommendatory Action.”
However, De Castro’s recommendation apparently covered only the senior citizen’s party-list, when there were other party-list organizations affected by the Comelec resolution, such as, they said, one that was raffled to Associate Justice Bienvenido L. Reyes, who also allegedly ordered a TRO against the Comelec resolution.
“Upon the Chief Justice’s evaluation, the COMELEC Resolution could not be restrained in favor of one group but allowed to continue against others. For this reason, the TRO she issued was not limited to the petitioners in G.R. Nos. 206844-45,” the lawyers’ statement said.
Source: GMA News
No comments:
Post a Comment