(Eagle News) — The filing of a quo warranto petition against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno is “not the best act of kindness” toward her, her camp said.
Belying Solicitor General Jose Calida’s claim, Sereno’s spokespersons said in a statement that the “best act of kindness” was “to transmit to the Senate the articles of impeachment expeditiously if they find probable cause in the committee and vote for impeachment in the plenary.”
According to them, the 1987 Constitution says that an impeachable official can only be removed from his or her post via impeachment proceedings involving the Senate and the House of Representatives.
In the case of the Office of the Ombudsman against then-Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Arturo Mojica, for instance, they said the High Court ruled that an impeachable officer could not be disbarred without being impeached first.
“The same principle applies to the quo warranto case filed against the Chief Justice,” Sereno’s spokespersons said.
They said Calida’s filing of the petition was “part and parcel of the grand plan “to harass, malign and humiliate the Chief Justice to force her to resign..”
They said this was “because her detractors know that the impeachment case, which was built on lies, won’t stand a chance in the Senate.”
“The most cruel act they can inflict on the Filipino nation is to pressure the Supreme Court to substitute impeachment with quo warranto. Why are they afraid of a Senate trial?” they said.
“All attempts to unseat the Chief Justice via extra-constitutional means make a mockery of the impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives and, subsequently, the impeachment trial in the Senate,” they added.
In filing the quo warranto petition before the SC on Monday, Calida had sought for the High Court to declare Sereno’s appointment as Chief Justice unconstitutional.
He said this was an “act of kindness” toward Sereno.
“The Office of the Solicitor General will not allow you to undergo the indignity that the late Chief Justice Renato Corona suffered at the hands of politicians who unjustly convicted him. You do not deserve that,” Calida had said.