Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno urged her colleagues at the Supreme Court (SC) to junk the quo warranto plea of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) that seeks to void her appointment on grounds of ineligibility “for lack of jurisdiction and merit.”

In her 77-page comment, Sereno said the high court has no authority to remove her from office via quo warranto because “the text of the 1987 Constitution, the Constitutional Commission’s deliberations, and established jurisprudence consistently state that impeachable officials like her can be ousted ‘only by impeachment.’”

“Section 2, Article XI of the 1987 Constitution provides that impeachable officials, which include all members of the SC, may only be removed from office upon impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court. The SC itself has consistently applied this provision as a limitation on its power to remove public officers,” she explained.

Should the high court give due course to the petition, Sereno said that would be tantamount to “running afoul of the plain dictates of the fundamental law and established judicial precedents.”

Her camp insists Sereno deserves her day in court before the Senate sitting as an Impeachment Tribunal.

“To rule otherwise, and to preempt the impeachment process by summarily ousting the Chief Justice via quo warranto, would be tantamount to overthrowing the Constitution itself,” Sereno stressed.

She also argued that the OSG plea is “time-barred” for having been filed more than four years after the supposed expiration of the one-year statute of proscription for quo warranto, citing the Rules of Court.

She has repeatedly insisted she complied with the SALN Law and that she is “ready to prove this in the Senate impeachment trial.”

JBC SALN REQUIREMENT A POLITICAL QUESTION/ISSUE

As to the SALNs for the ten-year period immediately preceding the application for Chief Justice required by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) when she applied for the Chief Justice post in 2012, Sereno said “only the JBC has the power to determine who meets the integrity requirement for appointment to the judiciary and that such question is a purely political one.”

It may be recalled that the OSG argued this requisite hinges on Article VIII, Section 7 (3) of the 1987 Constitution which states, “A member of the Judiciary must be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity, and independence.”

“There is no authority for the judicial review of a purely political question, as the OSG cannot substitute its judgment for the discretion of the JBC to include a name in the shortlist for the position of Chief Justice, and certainly the OSG cannot overturn the then President’s decision to appoint her to that position,” Sereno said.

She added that the submission of all SALNs for those in government was a requirement which the JBC can waive and actually waived not only for her but also for 13 other applicants who had failed to submit their complete SALNs to the JBC namely, Associate Justices Roberto Abad, Arturo Brion, Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Deans Raul Pangalangan and Amado Valdez, and Congressman Ronaldo Zamora. Except for the two deans, all the other candidates were shortlisted together with Sereno.

The JBC has however certified that SC Senior Associate Justice and Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro submitted more than the required 10-year SALNs when they applied for the top judicial post in 2012.

In its certification pertaining to Carpio, the JBC said it received photocopies of his 2001-2011 SALNs, and electronic copies of his 1992-1994 SALNs. This means Carpio submitted 14 SALNs.

In the case of De Castro, the JBC said she submitted SALNs covering 1997-2011, or a total of 15 SALNs.

During the February 12 House hearing on the Sereno impeachment case, JBC Executive Director Annaliza Capacite testified the above-stated submissions of Carpio and De Castro, as well as Associate Justice Presibitero Velasco’s submission of 19 SALNs, and then Associate Justice Arturo Brion, 10 SALNs.

'BIASED 6’ MUST INHIBIT

In separate motions, the chief magistrate called for the inhibition of Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam (justice in charge of the QW case), and Samuel Martires, all of whom testified at the House impeachment hearings

These magistrates "readily and willingly testified against the Chief Justice in the impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives and actively participated in the so-called 'Red Monday' protest in the SC that called for Sereno’s resignation,” said her spokespersons.