(Eagle News) — The Coalition for Justice on Monday, April 30, urged Solicitor General Jose Calida to resign after he denied a request for him to file a quo warranto petition against Associate Justice Teresita de Castro on the basis she supposedly did not file her complete Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth.
CFJ, which supports Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno who faces a quo warranto case filed by Calida for her alleged failure to submit complete SALNs, said what was “at work is a blatant double standard.”
“Operating here is a policy of injustice where friends are protected and foes are prosecuted; where lies are spun to defend or attack; where the selective application of law is key. This is all we can expect from this regime. It can produce no better. We will be fools to hope for more,” the CFJ said.
According to the group, Calida’s refusal to initiate the proceedings against De Castro because, allegedly, the same standards could not apply to her as she was not the one appointed chief justice in 2012, was a “ridiculous, pathetic evasion.”
“The issue here is integrity. If CJ Sereno’’s probity is being impugned because of a few missing SALNs which she has proven that she filed, then the same strict standard should be applied to De Castro,” the CFJ said.
“If Calida cannot accept the fact of Sereno’s substantial compliance, then neither should he accept De Castro’s. It does not matter that she was not appointed CJ (Chief Justice). After all, Calida claims that integrity is a continuing requirement, and when it is proven that a Justice has no integrity, she can be removed at any time,” the group added.
On April 23, Calida denied individual Jocelyn Acosta’s request for the filing of a quo warranto case against De Castro, saying her allegations she only filed 15 of the 39 SALNs she was required to submit under the law were not backed up by evidence.
