MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE 3 – 3:40 p.m.) The justice committee of the House of Representatives gave the green light to the impeachment complaint filed against Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno by lawyer Lorenzo Gadon but dismissed a second complaint on Tuesday, September 13.

The Gadon complaint was declared sufficient in form and substance despite objections that it was defective and did not present clear evidence of being impeachable offenses. The separate votes on the form and substance on the complaint yielded the same results, 30-4.

But the second complaint, filed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption’s Dante Jimenez and Eligio Mallari, was dismissed on a 5-28 vote after being found to insufficient in form due to a defective verification.

Gadon’s complaint alleged that Sereno committed betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, corruption and other high crimes.

(READ THE RULES ON IMPEACHMENT HERE: http://www.congress.gov.ph/download/docs/hrep.impeachment.rules.pdf)

Source: http://www.interaksyon.com/1-of-2-impeachment-complaints-vs-sereno-found-sufficient-in-form-and-substance/