House justice panel bars non-members from Sereno impeach proceedings

The House Committee on Justice on Wednesday barred non-members of the panel to participate in the proceedings for the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

With a vote of 30 members in the affirmative and three in the negative, the panel approves the motion of Deputy Speaker Gwen Garcia to allow only members of the committee to participate in the deliberations.

The voting came after Albay Representative Edcel Lagman submitted a position paper insisting that non-members of the panel may be allowed to speak and participate in the committee deliberations.

Lagman himself is not a member of the panel, along with Akbayan party-list Representative Tom Villarin, who also submitted separate position papers related to the matter.

"It is the immutable and inflexible tradition in the House of Representatives that House members who are not members of standing and special committees have the right to participate in the proceedings of the committees without the right to vote," Lagman said in his position paper.

Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, however, said the House justice panel is not holding an ordinary hearing, but one that is enshrined in the Constitution.

"Certainly you are free to attend. But if every member of the House, if each member will be allowed we will never finish here," he said.

"You can listen so that you will be already enlightened when you vote in plenary. [But] I reiterate the position of the Committee on Rules [that] non-members of the committee cannot participate in the deliberations," he added.

The House justice is currently deliberating to find probable cause on the impeachment case against Sereno.

Sereno's camp had already issued a statement lamenting the decision of the House of Representatives justice committee to deny her request for her lawyers to grill witnesses to be presented in the impeachment proceedings. —LBG, GMA News