Officials of the House Committee on Justice have guaranteed Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen his right to due process as the 18th Congress gets ready to conduct its first impeachment proceedings presumably next year.

This developed as Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez assured the public that Leonen will not meet the same fate as former Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno who was removed in 2017.

 Rodriguez, former dean of the San Sebastian College of Law,  said the House of Representatives will insist on observing the constitutional provision in relation to impeachment,  adding that a quo warranto proceeding in the High Court should be discontinued.

“And so I believe that it was a mistake for the Supreme Court to proceeding with the quo warranto especially because at that time Congress had already been hearing the impeachment,” the Mindanaoan lawmaker stressed, referring to the removal of Sereno via quo warranto petition that was decided by her SC peers.

 Rodriguez, together with Ako Bicol partylist Rep. Alfredo Garbin, said the House  Committee on Justice will follow strictly the rules of procedure of impeachment provided for under the House Rules of Impeachment and the 1987 Constitution.

 Rodriguez and Garbin are vice chairmen of the Justice panel chaired by Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso, a retired Court of Appeals magistrate.

Rodriguez said that the House will be thorough and careful in threading the impeachment process.

“We cannot rush this because we are talking here of the member of the highest magistrate, the highest court of the land,” he said.

On the other hand, Garbin stressed that the Justice panel will not solely rely on determining Leonen’s guilt or innocence based on the number of those who will vote.

“We should stop saying that impeachment is just a numbers game. It’s not. We have rules to follow and we have to observe due process,” Garbin said. 

Garbin is a member of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal in which Leonen is chairman.

Filed on Monday by lawyer Larry Gadon and complainant Edwin Cordevilla, the impeachment complaint charged Leonen of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.

Gadon and Cordevilla accused Leonen of violating the law by failing to file his Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth when he taught law at the University of the Philippines prior to his appointment to the SC.

The complainants also chided the SC magistrate for delayed resolution of cases assigned to him stressing that he has the most number of pending cases, totaling 82, among incumbent SC justices.
 
Meanwhile, Rodriguez said Leonen cannot be removed as SC justice unless it is through impeachment.

“That cannot happen because the Constitution is very clear. Impeachable officials like Supreme Court associate justices can only be removed by impeachment,” said Rodriguez.

He added:  “The Constitution is supreme over the Rules of Court, definitely.”

 
Reacting to Rodriguez’s statement, Gadon questioned the House official’s statement, pointing out that “he cannot be more authoritative than the Supreme Court.”

 Gadon said Rodriguez’s interpretation of the law on removal of officials of the SC  cannot be more superior than the SC itself when it ruled on the removal of Sereno.

He added: “We must be reminded that the SC is the final interpreter of the law.”