UMALI ET AL CAN’T CONTROL SENATE

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

IT will be a different when the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno reaches the Senate.

The cabal of lawmakers led by Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chair of the House committee on justice, also known as the Umali impeachment committee, would lose control of the proceedings the moment the House of Representatives, as a plenary body, endorses the impeachment complaint to the Senate, which, in turn, would convene as a court to try Sereno.

The one-sided public hearings the Umali impeachment committee has been conducting over the last three months would be a thing of the past in the Senate. In consonance with the basic precept of due process of law, Sereno, with the help of a battery of young but aggressive lawyers, would be given her day in court by the Senate.

She would have her chance to explain directly to the Filipino people her side of the story. A number of witnesses, including her fellow magistrates, have appeared before the Umali impeachment committee over the last three months, but they could hardly say categorically the impeachable offense allegedly committed by the Chief Justice.

They have aired what they considered managerial and administrative lapses by the Chief Justice, but none of them could be regarded as a ground for her impeachment and removal from office.

Because of the volatile nature of the public trial at the Senate, where its own flux and flow and dynamics could spell doom for the impeachment complaint, lawmakers have been hesitant to appear as prosecutors in the Senate trial.

They have been at odds and at a loss too on how the articles of impeachment would be prepared. The Umali impeachment committee has conducted at least 16 public hearings, but it has yet to establish the probable cause of the impeachment, which an obscure lawyer identified with the camp of former senator Bongbong Marcos has filed before the House of Representatives.

It was said that the Umali impeachment committee was finding ways to involve outside parties for the impeachment trial. Certain people identified with Umali and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez have been reported to have tapped the services of the 94-year old Juan Ponce Enrile, a former senator, to lead the state prosecutors.

But Enrile was said to have to lay down certain condition for his involvement in the Sereno impeachment. It involves the release on bail of Jessica “Gigi” Reyes, his former chief of staff.

There were no immediate words on how Alvarez and Umali would take Enrile’s condition, although Enrile’s family were said to have been opposed to his public engagement in the Sereno impeachment trial.

Meanwhile, Senate sources said the Senate would likely give as much leeway as possible for the chief magistrate to give her side of the story. Since the Umali impeachment committee has functioned more of a kangaroo court, Senate sources said it would most important to provide the Chief Justice the venue to air her side.

In brief, the Senate is inclined to accommodate the Chief Justice’s desire and initiatives to air her side on the many issues her detractors have raised in the Umali impeachment committee.

The Umali impeachment committee gained notoriety when it changed its own rules by depriving the Chief Justice’s legal counsel to cross examine the witnesses, who have testified.

It is also possible for the Senate to remand the impeachment complaint back to the Umali impeachment committee because of its essentially procedural defects, which include the complete lack of fair play in its proceedings.

Unless the Umali impeachment committee corrects its defective public hearings, the Senate would not convene as an impeachment court.

The Senate’s failure to act on the impeachment complaint would make it moot and academic. At a certain time, it could be dismissed.