Sereno wants 5 justices to inhibit
Sereno filed separate motions seeking the inhibition of Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza and Noel Tijam whom she accused of having biases against her.
The SC chief was set to also file yesterday afternoon a similar but “more comprehensive” motion for inhibition of Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro.
All five justices testified against Sereno in earlier impeachment hearings of the House of Representatives justice committee.
Sereno cited different reasons in her pleadings.
She accused Jardeleza of “harboring ill feelings towards the Chief Justice as a consequence of the latter’s challenge to his integrity during the nomination process for the associate justice position in 2014.”
Tijam, on the other hand, already prejudged the case after his testimony before the House panel, where he said that there may be a ground to impeach her and, therefore, remove her from office for culpable violation of the Constitution, Sereno alleged.
As for Peralta, Sereno said he should recuse from participating in the quo warranto case also for testifying before the House and expressing his view that she should have been disqualified from nomination for the chief justice position due to her failure to submit to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth for the years she was employed as a professor at the University of the Philippines.
Bersamin, according to Sereno, is likewise no longer qualified to participate in the case after he earlier accused her of acting like a dictator in exercising her leadership over the court and violating the collegial nature of the SC.
Testify under oath, Sereno told
In what appears to be a prelude to a confrontation, the SC has ordered Sereno to appear in the oral arguments.
In a three-page notice of a resolution released yesterday, the high court also required Sereno to “testify under oath” and “verify under oath the truth and veracity of the allegations in the comment filed by counsels supposedly on her behalf.”
The embattled SC chief, who is currently on indefinite leave, was likewise directed by her fellow justices to “expressly acknowledge this Court’s jurisdiction” on the quo warranto petition filed by the solicitor general last month.
“Her failure or refusal to so appear shall result in the cancelation of the scheduled oral argument,” the order approved by the magistrates in their summer session in Baguio City last Tuesday stated.
In the petition filed last month, Solicitor General Jose Calida asked the SC to nullify Sereno’s appointment over her ineligibility for the top judicial post and order her removal from office as a de facto official whose authority was allegedly hinged on an appointment that was void from the start.
The solicitor general argued that Sereno did not meet the specific qualification of proven integrity for the chief justice post with her failure to comply with the required submission of 10-year statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs).
Sereno confirms attendance
Meanwhile, Sereno has confirmed her attendance at the oral arguments during the SC’s session on the quo warranto petition filed against her.
Sereno, who spoke at the 12th Biennial National Convention and Seminar of the Court Legal Researchers Association of the Philippines in Bacolod City last Wednesday, reiterated that she would support the rule of law and face all accusations against her with “dignity, honor and grace.”
“Evil cannot endure for long, it never does,” the Chief Justice said in her speech, stressing that at the end of the day, everything that has been contrived “will be unmasked.”
Sereno also vowed to do everything to observe the constitutional process “because that is the only way we can preserve our country.”
“I am going through this with utmost peace because the truth is with me as it will also be with anyone who possesses the truth,” she said.
The Negros Occidental Regional Trial Court Judges Association and the Philippine Association of Court Employees-Negros Occidental chapter did not join the call for her resignation, stressing that she could only be removed through impeachment. – Gilbert Bayoran
- Latest
- Trending
