Will Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s testimony end up with Supreme Court justices washing their dirty linen in public?
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Sunday cautioned against the prosecution’s insistence to have Sereno appear as its witness in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
“Even if she’s willing to testify alone, it would be a slippery slope. It would open the door for other Supreme Court justices appearing in an impeachment trial over one pretext or another,” Santiago told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview.
“When the time comes for the defense to present its case, what would prevent them from inviting other justices who, as you say, were critical of Justice Sereno’s dissenting opinion? The prosecution can’t claim this (privilege) alone.”
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said he would give a “word of caution” to fellow senator-judges when the caucus took up the matter at 11 a.m. today.
“There might be a conflict within the Supreme Court and we might only worsen it,” Sotto said in Filipino in a separate interview.
Prosecutors want Sereno, an appointee of President Benigno Aquino III, to testify on her dissenting opinion on the effectivity of the high tribunal’s Nov. 15, 2011, temporary restraining order (TRO).
Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares on Sunday said he would file a motion for reconsideration of a February 14 resolution issued by the high tribunal that the court could “not waive privileges attendant to the proposed testimony” of its officials and employees in Corona’s impeachment trial “on matters covered by privilege and confidentiality.”
“It is absurd,” Colmenares said. “This practically means that anyone, from Chief Justice to Supreme Court drivers cannot testify.”
He said the prosecution would press the Senate to subpoena court officials, otherwise it would weaken its power to try impeachment cases.
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