Gadon may face perjury charge for claiming journalist gave him info vs. Sereno

Lawyer Lorenzo "Larry" Gadon may face a perjury charge for stating under oath that he received information regarding a stay order against further proclaiming party-list race winners in the May 2013 elections from a veteran print journalist.

This, House Committee on Justice chair Reynaldo Umali said after Supreme Court Associate Justice Teresita De Castro, whom Gadon said was the source of his information, denied releasing any such information to the journalist.

"Attorney Gadon may be liable for perjury. If declaration niya ito and this is under oath, so he will have to answer for his actions," Umali told reporters in an ambush interview.

During the panel's hearing, Gadon claimed that he got information from Manila Times reporter Jomar Canlas regarding Sereno's alleged tampering of a temporary restraining order in relation to a case involving the Coalition of Associations of Senior Citizens in the Philippines.

Gadon said De Castro confirmed to Canlas that she contested the TRO issued by Sereno in May 2013, where she accused the chief justice of omitting her recommendation to stop the disqualification of Senior Citizens party-list only, and not the party-list proclamation itself.

De Castro, however, denied giving any information to Canlas.

“I have never released to Jomar Canlas any information, report, or document regarding the work of the Court," she said in a statement.

Umali said they will direct Canlas to attend the next hearings to shed light on the issue.

"We have also invited, or we will issue a subpoena on Canlas. Tignan din natin ' side niya kung ano talaga yung pangyayari. Baka naman napayabang lang siya, nagkwento siya kay Attorney Gadon kaya nako-quote yung pangalan niya ngayon," he said.

"Again, we will look deep into these contradictory statements coming from Justice De Castro and Gadon and hopefully Canlas can clarify this," he added.

Gadon has stuck to his claim, insisting that his allegations are not perjurious.

"'Yung mga allegations, hindi pwedeng matawag na perjurious yun because even if no justice will testify on those documents, nandun na yung presence ng document e, the documents are existing already," he said.

The House justice panel will continue its deliberation on the impeachment case of Sereno next week. — BM, GMA News