JBC member insists Sereno psych records confidential, House panel threatens contempt

The House committee on justice on Tuesday threatened to cite in contempt members of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) if they would not submit copies of psychological and psychiatric test results of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno when she was applying for the post in 2012.

At the resumption of the House panel's hearing on the impeachment complaint against Sereno, JBC member Atty. Maria Milagros Cayosa said test results are "strictly confidential," citing JBC rules.

She said Rule 6 Section 3 of the JBC, states "the results of the examination are strictly confidential and are to be used solely by the council for evaluation purposes only."

"Copies are sent directly to the ex-officio members and the regular members only for evaluation purposes before we take a vote on the applicants for a position. Immediately after the meeting, all of these reports are retrieved and they are kept in the custody of the psychologists of the JBC," she added.

The House panel has ordered the issuance of a subpoena on the psychiatric records of Sereno.

However, Deputy Speaker Gwen Garcia pointed out that what Cayosa cited was the earlier rules of the JBC, which have bee namended in 2016.

"I believe that when the Chief Justice submitted herself as an applicant for chief justice, she was subject to JBC-009 which does not state any confidentiality," she said.

"In fact, Rules 6 Section 2 [of JBC rules in 2016] on psychological/psychiatric tests state merely that the applicant shall submit to psychological/psychiatric test to be conducted by the Supreme Court medical clinic or a psychologist or psychiatrist duly accredited by the council. There is no mention here of confidentiality," she added.

Cayosa, in response, said that they have consistently adopted this policy.

"It is stated in our minutes that the psychological evaluation reports have to remain confidential and that it should only be used only for evaluating the fitness of a candidate," she said.

Cayosa also mentioned that the said documents are subject to the sub judice rule, or "under judicial consideration," as these are part of a pending request of lawyer-complainant Lorenzo Gadon for the Supreme Court to provide him certified true copies of documents in connection the filing of the impeachment complaint against Sereno.

House panel chair Reynaldo Umali, however, said the sub judice rule cannot be applied on the case because the requests were submitted before the Supreme Court and not before the House of Representatives.

"This is now the impeachment committee issuing this directive requiring you to submit and this is not covered by the sub judice rule because we are not even a party to that case," he said.

"So please comply lest we will be constrained to cite members of the committee in contempt or the Council in contempt if you fail to heed this requirement issued by this impeachment committee," he added.

Dr. Genuina Ranoy and Dr. Dulce Lizza Sahagun, the two doctors who conducted the psychiatric examination for Sereno, also attended the hearing.

Ranoy said they do not have a copy of the chief justice's psychological and pyschiatric examination results.

"We do not keep any copy of evaluation reports that we did while we were at the JBC," she said.

Gadon, in his complaint, assailed the scores that Sereno got in her examinations, saying that any applicant who garnered a grade of 4 is "unfit for the job."

In an earlier hearing, former Supreme Court clerk of court Atty. Enriqueta Vidal said Sereno only got a score of 4 when she underwent examination with the psychiatrists from the JBC.

Not basis for impeachment

In a statement, Sereno's spokespersons said the House panel should only focus on valid grounds for the impeachment of the chief magistrate.

“Congress’ concerns about removal from office should focus on the specific grounds stated in the Constitution, and the psychological report is not one of them,” lawyer Jojo Lacanilao said. “Expanding and redefining the grounds for impeachment is itself a violation of the constitutional provision.”

Lacanilao said applicants for positions in the judiciary undergo such tests to measure their "personality characteristics, intelligence and cognitive features."

“We strongly oppose the concept that she flunked something. She did not flunk or fail anything,” he said, adding that the JBC and then President Benigno Aquino III had deemed that Sereno is qualified for the position.

In the same statement, lawyer Josa Deinla said the real intention behind efforts to make public the test results is to "“humiliate, insult, malign, ridicule and discredit the Chief Justice before the public.”

She said Sereno could not have served in the Supreme Court for seven years if she was not psychologically fit.

Before Sereno is appointed as chief justice, she served the high court as Associate Justice for two years. —ALG, GMA News