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Sereno: Give me my day in Senate impeachment court


"Give me my day in the Senate impeachment court, or admit that there is no probable cause."

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Friday gave this statement and again defied calls for her to resign, calling on "everyone to respect the impeachment process" after the culmination of such proceedings against her at the House of Representatives.

It may or may not reach the Senate. Lawmakers in the House Committee on Justice will vote on probable cause in the impeachment complaint against her next week.

In her first public appearance since the beginning of her indefinite leave of absence on Thursday, the embattled top magistrate in a speech made one request of "political leaders."

"I ask only one thing from the political leaders, only one thing: Give me my day in the Senate impeachment court or admit that there is no probable cause," she said at an event in the University of Baguio.

She dared her accusers to bring the impeachment complaint to what she has long anticipated would be a Senate trial, the preparation for which she claimed was the reason for her leave.

"If they were so sure of their evidence even to the point of perjuring themselves with baseless accusations that they can prove that I committed a harvest of sins against the people, why not bring it to the Senate?" she said.

Instead, she said, there is the "additional terribly injurious spectacle where court and Judicial and Bar Council officials are being threatened with administrative and criminal cases."

Her impeachment complainant, lawyer Lorenzo Gadon, has threatened he will file cases against several such officials if Sereno refuses to step down by March 1, coincidentally the date of the start of her leave.

"I do not owe anyone the duty to resign," said Sereno in Baguio. "I owe the people the duty to tell my story."

She is accused of culpable violation of the Constitution, corruption, other high crimes, and betrayal of public trust.

Some of her fellow magistrates have testified against her at the House justice committee hearings on the impeachment complaint.

Thirteen justices of the Supreme Court have also said they reached a "consensus" that Sereno should take an "indefinite leave" for "several reasons," none of which were elaborated.

But it appears, at least in her speech, that she has bright prospects for after the impeachment trial, should there be one.

"I am hopeful that after the impeachment trial, days of renewal for the Supreme Court can still be forged, united by the common desire to serve our people and protect their constitutional rights especially in these troubled times," she said. —KG, GMA News

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