Premature impeachment complaint vs. Chief Justice

See - Manuel Laserna Jr.

Duterte's political allies/operators in the VACC have filed an impeachment complaint vs. the Chief Justice based on the following allegations: 

"...she disregarded the Supreme Court en banc. When they decide on rulings, all justices should sit on it, not her alone. What she did was she made decisions, created offices, refused to fill vacancies, without consulting other justices."

Note that these allegations refer to "internal administrative matters" that must first be discussed and resolved by the Supreme Court En Banc itself without need for "premature intervention" by the Legislative by way of a politically motivated impeachment proceeding which appears to be utterly bereft of a "mature cause of action".

"Failure to exhaust (internal) administrative remedies" is a valid ground to attack the maturity and ripeness of the causes of action alleged in the VACC complaint. 

It affects the very "sufficiency" of the complaint in the first instance.

The VACC allegations must be proven in due time, assuming that the complaint passes through the rigid screening of the committee on justice of the Lower House and the Plenary thereof.

The Plenary of the Lower House has the original, sole and exclusive jurisdiction to approve the Articles of Impeachment, which is thereafter forwarded to the Senate for trial and decision, as the "Impeachment Court" under the 1987 Constitution.

The first obstacle that the VACC faces is that no one in the Lower House has supported/signed/endorsed its complaint as of the time of filing thereof in the secretariat of the Lower House.

The VACC complaint is separate from the complaint that a private lawyer (a losing senatorial candidate last election) has announced in a recent press conference.

Note that when an announcement refers to an "intention" and not to the "fact of actual filing" of the complaint, you can be sure that the press conference is intended as a "dirty psycho-social mode of political trial by publicity."

- Atty. Manuel Laserna Jr.

Las Pinas City, Philippines

Duterte allies foiled in first bid to impeach Sereno

President Duterte’s allies were foiled in their first attempt to impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno after no member of the House of Representatives came forward to endorse either of two complaints prepared Wednesday.

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