MANILA — Solicitor General Jose Calida on Monday reiterated that Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno failed to file her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, when she was a law professor at the University of the Philippines.
“In her 20 years as a UP law professor, Sereno failed to file her SALN 11 times,” Calida said in a statement.
“If Sereno indeed filed her SALNs, why can’t she just produce them?” Calida asked.
Sereno earlier claimed that Calida’s confirmation that he obtained the SALNs himself proved that she indeed filed her SALNs, contrary to the latter’s claim in his quo warranto petition.
According to Sereno, this pronouncement of the Solicitor General is an admission that the quo warranto petition is baseless.
Lawyer Josalee Deinla, one of Sereno’s spokespersons, added that at least 11 of the 21 missing SALNs have been found by the Chief Justice prior to Solicitor General Jose Calida’s submission of the top magistrate’s SALNs to the Supreme Court on March 27, 2018.
Deinla said the fact that Calida himself confirmed that he had obtained the SALNs himself proved that the Chief Justice had indeed filed her UP SALNs contrary to solicitor general’s claim in his petition.
“SolGen Calida’s quo warranto petition was based on his claim that since CJ Sereno did not file UP SALNs and that she failed to meet the constitutional requirement of proven integrity when she failed to submit her UP SALNs to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC),” Deinla said in a statement.
Deinla cited Paragraph 23 of the petition where Calida “categorically and without qualification” stated that the Chief Justice “only filed SALNs for the years 1998, 2002 and 2006 during her tenure as law professor at the UP College of Law from 1986 up to 2006.
In its quo warranto petition, the OSG alleged, among others, that Sereno failed to file her SALN 11 times in her 209 years as a law professor.
According to Calida, there is no independent evidence showing that Sereno filed her SALNs for the years 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006.
Sereno not backing down
In a separate statement, Deinla said the top magistrate remains unfazed by the impeachment case and quo warranto petition against her.
“Chief Justice Sereno is determined to fight the impeachment case and the quo warranto petition filed against her with the Supreme Court. This means that all her efforts are focused on the issues at hand. Any insinuation about her supposed plan in the future is nothing but a distraction to sow intrigue and confuse the public,” Deinla said in a statement.
“Let’s keep our eyes on the ball and stay focused on the issues behind the coordinated attempts to oust the Chief Justice,” she added.
Sereno, currently on indefinite leave from office, has earlier sought the dismissal of the case, arguing that the SC has no jurisdiction and authority to remove her from office because the 1987 Constitution provides that she could only be ousted by impeachment in Congress as an impeachable official.
Citing Section 2, Article XI of the Constitution, she said impeachable officials — including herself and all justices 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.
During the oral arguments on the quo warranto petition in Baguio City last April 10, Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio directed both parties to submit their respective memoranda and pertinent documents on or before April 20. (Christopher Lloyd Caliwan/PNA)
