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De Lima lauds Carpio for skipping House hearing on Sereno impeach rap


Senator Leila De Lima on Friday lauded Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio's decision to skip the House Committee on Justice’s hearing on the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

At least four Supreme Court justices have participated in the hearings to establish the evidence of impeachable offenses after lawyer Larry Gadon filed the complaint against the chief magistrate.

"Justice Antonio Carpio is the breath of fresh air in the judiciary today. The most to have a gripe as the most senior Justice to be bypassed for the Chief Justice position, he now exemplifies dignity and circumspection among the justices for refusing to be dragged into the highly politicized impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Sereno," De Lima said in a statement handwritten from her detention in Camp Crame.

"In so doing, Justice Carpio has managed to preserve whatever integrity and honor is left in the High Court. He now symbolizes both the independence and forthrightness of a Court under siege from the House and Malacañang," she added.

De Lima, the justice secretary for most of the Aquino administration, is in jail on drug charges after convicts at the New Bilibid Prison testified before a congressional inquiry that she had a hand in the drug trade inside the national penitentiary.

Among the justices who have testified against Sereno before the House justice panel are Associate Justices Teresita de Castro, Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam and former justice Arturo Brion.

"In a time where self-preservation and self-interest dominate the political scene of kowtowing to Malacañang, there are men and women who refuse to be so beguiled by power and protection, but instead stand up for and defend their institutions from the assault of tyranny,"  De Lima said.

"They will all be remembered when this is all over, the few and brave souls who dared to stand up against the impunity of the House and the regime it serves," she added. —NB, GMA News

 

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