The Supreme Court on Friday, May 11, 2018, ousted Sereno from her post as Chief Justice after acting on the quo warranto petition filed against her by the Office of the Solicitor General. / AFP PHOTO / Ted ALJIBE
(Eagle News) – The Supreme Court has declared “vacant” the position of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after ousting Maria Lourdes Sereno from her position, and ordered her to explain why she should not be sanctioned for her actions that they said violated the “sub judicide rule.”
With a vote of 8-6, the high court said Sereno is “found disqualified from and is hereby adjudged guilty of unlawfully holding and exercising the office of the Chief Justice.”
“The position of the Chief Justice is declared vacant and the Judicial and Bar Council is directed to commence the application and nomination process,” the tribunal’s decision said.
“This Decision is immediately executory without need of further action from the Court,” it said.
The Supreme Court also “ordered” Sereno to explain or “show cause” within 10 days from her receipt of the decision should not be sanctioned for “violating the Code of Professional Responsibility and the Code of Judicial Conduct for transgressing the subjudice rule and for casting aspersions and ill motives to the members of the Supreme Court.”
Sereno, before the high court issued the decision and during the pendency of the quo warranto case, had been going the rounds of schools and speaking engagements denouncing the quo warranto petition filed against her and the other justices of the Supreme Court who had appeared before the House Committee on Justice that heard the impeachment complaint against her.
But within minutes after the SC announced the high court’s decision through its spokesperson Atty. Theodore Te, Sereno came out to her supporters, saying this was a day to fight.
-Defiant Sereno urges supporters to “fight with her”
“Inilagay tayo rito para sa ganitong mga panahon. Ang araw na ito ay araw ng paglaban. (We were placed here for these times. This day is a day to fight),” a defiant Sereno said in front of supporters and reporters.
“Ang araw na ito ay hindi katapusan, kundi simula lamang. (This day is not the end but only a beginning),” she said.
“Sa araw na ito, ipunin natin ang ating tapang, at iparinig ang ating nagkakaisang-tinig. Hindi na tayo maaring manatiling tahimik, dahil ang nananahimik ay katumbas ng pagiging kasabwat sa kanilang pang-aabuso,” Sereno said encouraging her supporters to defy what she said was injustice done to her and to the whole Filipino nation.
“Sama-sama nating tibagin ang mga kasinungalingan at pagmamalabis. (Let us together destroy the lies and abuse),” she said as she called on more people to “fight a bigger enemy.”
After her speech, militant actress Mae “Juana Change” Paner, repeatedly shouted, “Ang laban ni CJ ay laban ng bayan (CJ’s fight is the nation’s fight).”
The eight Supreme Court justices who voted in favor of removing Sereno through the quo warranto petition were Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Teresita Leonardo De Castro, Lucas Bersamin, Samiel Martires, Francis Jardeleza, Alexander Gesmundo, Andres Reyes and Noel Tijam who wrote the decision.
Those who dissented were Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Marvic Leonen, Mark del Castillo, Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, Presbitero Velasco Jr., and Estela Perlas-Bernabe.
Sereno claimed she still won if the SC justices whom she had accused of earlier exhibiting bias against her had inhibited during the voting. The SC justices whom Sereno wanted to inhibit were Peralta, Bersamin, De Castro, Jardeleza, Martires and Tijam.
Sereno, who was appointed by former President Benigno Aquino as Chief Justice on August 24, 2012, was the first head of the tribunal to be ousted by her peers.
Majority of the high court agreed with the position of Solicitor General Jose Calida that Sereno was ineligible from the start to hold the post because of her failure to file at least 10 Statements of Assets Liabilities and Net Worth for the time that she served as professor of University of the Philippines College of Law.
The quo warranto petition was filed on March 5, 2018, after evidence was uncovered during the House Committee on Justice hearing the impeachment complaint filed against Sereno that she had failed to fully comply with the SALN requirements for the Chief Justice post.
(Eagle News Service)