Manila: Philippines’ Chief Justice M.L. Sereno: Who’s corrupt? Asks House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez
CHIEF Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno used an appearance on a TV talk show to deny that she had ever benefited from corruption, and to suggest that House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez did when he was still working as an airport official years ago.
“It’s good to guess who gained from corruption. It wasn’t me,” she said in Filipino on a talk show on GMA News TV Monday night. “I’m the one going after the corrupt.”
Sereno recalled that she appeared as an expert witness before the anti-graft court to expose the onerous terms of a contract between the government and the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc., which built the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.
The contract approved by Alvarez, was “grossly disadvantageous” to the government, Sereno said.
She also recalled that Alvarez’s wife Emelita profited from excavation work that her company Wintrack Builders Inc. did for Piatco.
“Was there a conflict of interest that he did not disclose?” Sereno asked. “How connected were these relationships? And there were also testimonies about his relationship with PairCargo itself, which joined with Lufthansa to form Piatco.
Sereno has said that Alvarez was behind the impeachment complaint against her as a way of getting even with her for testifying against him years ago.
Responding to the allegation, Alvarez said Sereno was veering away from the impeachment issues.
In the same TV program, Sereno denied reports that she fired two psychiatrists who allegedly gave her a poor grade in the mental fitness test that she took when she applied to be chief justice.
Sereno said it was the decision of the Judicial and Bar Council that decided not to renew the contracts of the two psychiatrists.
Testifying before the House committee on justice Tuesday, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said there was no deadline for the Supreme Court to act on his request that cases related to the Marawi siege by the Maute terrorist group be transferred away from Mindanao, but said “common sense dictates that it must act without delay, given the urgency of the matter.”
Aguirre told lawmakers Tuesday that Sereno had asked him to tone down his letter of request to transfer the cases out of Mindanao for safety reasons during a meeting in her office on June 19.
“In our meeting, we were the only ones there and she told me: Secretary, with respect to your request, I hope you tone down the contents of your letter you are about to send,” Aguire said.
Aguirre said the chief justice wanted him to pay attention to the idea that transferring the cases to Metro Manila would free the military from having to detain the suspects, so they could “focus on fighting terrorists.”
Aguirre said he wrote five letters to Sereno, dated May 29, June 13, June 14, June 19 and July 3, before the Court issued a resolution granting his request on June 27. The resolution, however, was released only on July 20.
Also on Tuesday, the chairman of the House committee on justice declared that lawyer Larry Gadon had no personal knowledge of the 27 allegations in his complaint against Sereno.
“We all know now that you don’t have personal knowledge in all [of the allegations in the complaint],” Rep. Reynaldo Umali of Oriental Mindoro, the panel chairman, told Gadon during the impeachment hearing Tuesday.
Legal experts say that if a complainant in an impeachment case has no personal knowledge of the allegations, he or she must be able to provide the committee official records, documents, witnesses and their affidavits to back up the allegations.
During Monday’s hearing, Umali scolded Gadon for failing to substantiate his allegations and merely passing on to the panel his supposed homework to produce witnesses and execute their affidavits for the panel’s appreciation of the impeachment case.
Gadon admitted that his “own sources” were hesitant to participate in the impeachment proceedings.
Umali said Gadon’s presentation of the case was “lousy.”
“By passing the buck to congressmen, Gadon has turned his committee into his own personal investigator,” Umali said.
On Tuesday, Gadon said he had no personal knowledge that Sereno “committed corruption when she used public funds to finance her extravegant and lavish lifestyle by staying in opulent hotels when attending conferences in the Philippines and abroad, and flying on business or first class together with her staff and security.”
Courtesy: The Manila Standard | posted November 29, 2017 at 12:01 am by Maricel Cruz |
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