(Eagle News) — Thirteen applicants for the position of Chief Justice failed to submit the required number of Statements of Asset, Liabilities and Net Worth.
This is according to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s camp, who appeared to have admitted in a statement on Monday that she herself had failed to submit her SALNs at one point.
“The submission of all SALNs for those in government was a requirement which the JBC can waive and it waived not only for Sereno but also for 13 other applicants who had failed to submit their complete SALNs to the JBC,” the Sereno camp said.
According to them, these were Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio; Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-De Castro; Roberto Abad; Arturo Brion; Raul Pangalangan; Amado Valdez; and Rep. Ronaldo Zamora.
Even then, Sereno’s camp said that she complied with the SALN law when she was a University of the Philippines law professor, noting that the UP Human Resource Development Office already issued her a certificate of clearance.
Besides, they added lawyer Larry Gadon, who filed the impeachment complaint against Sereno, did not charge her with non-filing of SALN.
The House justice panel on Monday voted for its committee report and Articles of Impeachment against Sereno, which are slated to be voted on by the plenary.
If approved, they will be transmitted to the Senate, which will turn itself into an impeachment court.