By Moira Encina
Eagle News Service
The Supreme Court has decided with finality to remove Maria Lourdes Sereno as Chief Justice.
This was after the High Court voted to junk Sereno’s motion for reconsideration of the May 11 SC ruling that ruled in favor of the quo warranto petition filed against her.
In the quo warranto petition, Solicitor General Jose Calida argued Sereno’s appointment as Chief Justice should be nullified because she lacked the integrity required of applicants to the position in the first place.
He said this was after Sereno did not file her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth when she was a law professor at the University of the Philippines.
Voting 8-6, the High Court junked Sereno’s appeal “for lack of merit” in a resolution penned by Associate Justice Noel Tijam, a media briefer released to reporters on Tuesday, June 19, said.
The eight justices who voted to uphold the May 11 ruling were the same justices who voted in favor of the quo warranto petition.
These were Tijam, Justices Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, Samuel Martires, Andres Reyes and Alexander Gesmundo.
In junking Sereno’s appeal, the High Court said she did not raise new arguments that warrant a reversal of its earlier decision.
The SC as such declared Tuesday, June 19, as the start of the 90-day period to fill the vacancy of chief magistrate.
Sereno is the first Chief Justice to be removed from office via a quo warranto petition.