Metro Manila (CNN Phillippines, November 28) — The House Justice Committee is bracing itself for what it says will be its “most explosive” impeachment hearing yet, with Associate Justice Teresita de Castro authorized to attend Wednesday.
Committee Chair Rey Umali called a special meeting among his members to set the ground rules so they can make the most of de Castro’s appearance.
De Castro is the resource person for two charges against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno: her alleged falsification of a Supreme Court resolution and her alleged tampering of a temporary restraining order – which was originally penned by de Castro herself.
Regardless, the committee decided they would run through all 27 charges against Sereno anyway so they can get De Castro’s insights.
Umali said, “The strategy is kapag ininvite natin yung Justice, lahat ng probable charges she can testify on ico-cover na namin…Baka yung isang araw kay Justice De Castro kulang pa.”
[Translation: The strategy is when we invite the Justice, we will cover all possible charges she can testify to…One day for Justice De Castro might not be enough.]
Umali instructed his committee members to avoid repeating questions.
They must also grant De Castro and other Justices the respect and courtesy due to them as ranking officials of a co-equal branch of government.
He said, “I guess she will be the most explosive witness and resource person to give us the facts that we have been wanting to elicit by reason of her personal knowledge and not just authentic documents, but of course she can also testify on that.”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday authorized only De Castro to testify in the impeachment hearing against Sereno.
The court also permitted all justices and officials to testify in the hearings, but only on administrative matters.
SC Spokesperson Theodore Te announced in a media briefing after the en banc that De Castro was allowed to discuss “adjudicative matters” on three issues raised by the complainant, lawyer Larry Gadon.
The House committee had invited Associate Justices De Castro and Noel Tijam, former Associate Justice Arturo Brion, and other Supreme Court officials to testify on the impeachment complaint.
READ: Supreme Court justices and officials skip Sereno impeachment hearing
However, Tijam said in a letter to the committee that they needed permission from the court, where all 15 justices sit, before they could participate in the hearing.
De Castro and Brion said they also needed clearance from the full court to produce and use internal communications and other documents from the Supreme Court related to the impeachment complaint.
Both De Castro and Tijam assured they would attend the hearing if permitted.
CNN Philippines Correspondent Joyce Ilas and Digital Producer Ver Marcelo contributed to this report.
