Says he has “no personal knowledge” of matters he was being asked to talk about
By Moira Encina
Eagle News Service
Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has declined the House justice panel’s invitation for him to testify against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno in impeachment hearings.
In a Jan. 10 letter to Rep. Rey Umali, chair of the committee, Carpio said this was because he has “no personal knowledge” of the matters he would be asked to talk about.
These matters include Sereno’s alleged falsification of the temporary restraining order of the Supreme Court in the senior citizens partylist vs Commission on Elections case, her alleged lying “to make it appear that several justices requested that they do away with the voting for the recommendees to the Supreme Court, her alleged “hiring of a consultant with excessive compensation without public bidding,” and her alleged manipulation and delay of the transfer of Maute cases outside Mindanao.
As for the panel’s request that he testify on “all other allegations involving administrative matters and rules and internal procedures of the Supreme Court,” Carpio said that “unless the allegations are made specific, I will not be able to comment or testify..”
“I trust that you will find the foregoing in order,” he said.