A FORMER senator and legal luminary and the spokesman of the late Renato Corona, the first chief justice to be impeached and convicted, are being eyed by the House of Representatives to serve as its private prosecutors if the case of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno is elevated to the Senate for trial. The committee ruling will be presented next week to the plenary, which will vote on whether to impeach Sereno or not. Enrile, who has been detained for a P172-million plunder charge, was ordered released by the Supreme Court in August 2015 on humanitarian grounds. The 94-year-old former defense minister, however, did not cite humanitarian grounds in his pleading before the Supreme Court to grant him bail. Aquino eventually appointed Sereno as Chief Justice in August 2012 even if she is the youngest member of the High Court.

Source: Manila Times March 11, 2018 07:07 UTC