Impeach complaint vs SC justice sufficient in form — House body – Interaksyon.com.

Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, InterAksyon.com

MANILA, Philippines — In a close vote, a House of Representatives body on Wednesday declared sufficient in form the impeachment complaint against Supreme Court Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo.

Voting 11 for, 10 against, with one abstention, members of the House committee on justice said the complaint met the requirements of the impeachment rules as to the submission of the verified complaint.

The committee will next determine if the complaint is sufficient in substance.

The complaint charged Del Castillo with betrayal of public trust for plagiarizing a decision he wrote about the case of comfort women last year.

It was filed in December by five members of the organization Malaya Lola and 15 lawmakers, who also served as endorsers.

Before the voting, Isabela Representative Giorgidi Aggabao objected to the motion to declare it sufficient in form, saying the complaint was defective because the complainants, particularly the Malaya Lola members, engaged in forum-shopping.

Aggabao said the verification procedure requires complainants to certify that no other cases have commenced about the same issue and if there are, they should notify the court.

Aggabao said that at the time the Malaya Lola filed the impeachment complaint, the organization had a pending appeal before the Supreme Court on the dismissal of their case.

“There is falsehood, lie on their verification. This would have merited an outright dismissal,” he said.

Oriental Mindoro Representative Amelita Villarosa and CIBAC party-list Representative Sherwin Tugna echoed Aggabao’s view.

“My fear is if someone does not obtain a favorable judgment from a different agency of goverment, my fear is the House of Representatives might be used to secure reversal of the judgment. That I don’t want to happen,” Tugna said.

Turning emotional, Ilocos Norte Representative Rodolfo Farinas crumpled the verification sheet in protest of Aggabao’s statement.

“Forum-shopping does not apply here, it applies only in the rules of court. When it comes to impeachment, there’s only one body and this is the House of Representatives,” Farinas said.

Quezon Representative Lorenzo Tanada III, the deputy speaker, said Rule 14, Section 13 of the Rules on Impeachment only requires the complainant to verify that the one filed was her complaint.

“Their need to state the pending case in the Supreme Court is not necessary. As to form, we have passed the test,” Tanada said.

Marikina Representative Romero Federico Quimbo and Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali stressed that aside from the five members of the Malaya Lola, 14 lawmakers also acted as complainants.

Quimbo said that only one complainant is needed to verify the complaint to pass sufficiency in form.