Response to column on Sereno

Oscar Tan misleads in his column “Sereno admits guilt in impeachment charge” (10/2/17) .

The Chief Justice has made no such admission of guilt with respect to any of the impeachment charges. Tan must have misread the Verified Answer of the Chief Justice and chose to focus on sensationalizing a decided case.

He clearly expressed an opinion, his opinion. It is regrettable that his thoughts were circulated in cyberspace as news or facts. They are opinions, not facts.

The facts are:

The Supreme Court’s reversal of an official act of an impeachable officer does not make the act impeachable. Otherwise, there would be grounds to impeach the constitutional commissioners and the Ombudsman every time the high court reverses them.

While then-Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza accused the Chief Justice and the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) of grave abuse of discretion, the Supreme Court in its Decision did not make any categorical pronouncement that the JBC, much less the Chief Justice, acted “whimsically, capriciously or arbitrarily out of malice, ill will or personal bias.”

Tan’s accusation of “flagrant misrepresentation” is baseless. He cannot rely on Justice Arturo Brion’s separate concurring opinion as this is contradicted by the main decision, which commended the Chief Justice for her zeal in discharging her role as a member of the JBC.

Aside from the Jardeleza decision, Tan also misappreciated, if not misrepresented, the Chief Justice’s work for the Piatco cases. Except for a few consultancies on the side, the bulk of her time was spent on these cases. There is no such thing as part-time work on a case, especially a complex arbitration.

Moreover, contrary to Tan’s recollection, the Chief Justice earned about P3 million from other sources for the entire five-year period from 2004-2008 through honest hard work, and not corruption.

The Chief Justice’s integrity is unassailable and can and will withstand any scrutiny or investigation.

She fulfills her responsibilities with utmost respect for the rule of law. She has always done this and shall ever be committed to this.

CARLO L. CRUZ, [email protected]