Calida says “it appears she fabricated her 2006 SALN” for her Associate Justice post application in 2010, among others
(Eagle News)–Solicitor General Jose Calida on Tuesday accused Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno of deliberately misleading the Judicial and Bar Council with a “litany of falsehoods,” including her alleged fabrication of a Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth during her application for Associate Justice in 2010.
In a statement, Calida said that “when Sereno resigned in June 2006 as a UP professor, she should have submitted a SALN as of 2006” but this “bears no stamp receipt from UP, was only signed on July 27, 2010, the same day that she submitted it to the JBC (as a requirement for her application), and was not notarized.”
According to Calida, Sereno “failed to file” her SALNs eleven times from 1986 to 2006.
He noted that Sereno’s SALN dated December 31, 1998, was filed “only in 2003, or five years beyond the period required by law, and uses the prescribed SALN form for later years.”
He said her 2009 SALN was “also belatedly filed on June 22, 2012, or three years beyond the prescribed period.”
“The 2009 SALN reflects that she was holding the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, when in fact, she was only appointed on August 16, 2010,” Calida said.
According to Calida, Sereno’s “repeated failure to file her SALNs, and her dishonesty before the JBC are demonstrative of her obstinate refusal to comply with the law …”
“These are perjurious acts further bolster Sereno’s utter lack of integrity,” Calida added.
Calida has filed a quo warranto petition seeking to have Sereno’s appointment as Chief Justice nullified.
An impeachment complaint has also been filed against Sereno, who has been on leave since March 1.