Petitioners question timing of Calida's ouster plea

MANILA, Philippines — A group of petitioners led by "running priest" Fr. Robert Reyes and Noland Pernas, a farmer leader, have questioned the "suspicious timing" of Solicitor General Jose Calida's ouster petition against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

 

"It is not coincidental that the timing of the Office of the Solicitor General's petition for quo warranto concurs with efforts to unseat the chief justice elsewhere," the petitioners, through their counsel Ibarra Gutierrez, said on Thursday.

 

They seek to oppose Calida's petition, through intervention. The Makabayan bloc, earlier on Wednesday, filed their opposition-in-intervention.

 

READ: Makabayan bloc to oppose Calida's ouster plea vs Sereno

 

The petitioners questioned the timing of Calida's quo warranto petition, which was filed while the House of Representatives continues on the impeachment case against Sereno.

 

In their 21-page appeal, they said: "Just as the House of Representatives has grasped for evidence against the chief justice, now the government, through its legal counsel, grasps for other means to unseat her without a care for its implications and the precedent it will set."

 

They added: "To allow the Petition for Quo Warranto to prosper, is to shamelessly consent to a circumvention of a principle and safeguard fixed by none other than the fundamental law of the land."

 

Calida filed his petition seeking the nullification of Sereno's 2012 appointment as chief justice on March 5.

 

Three days later, the House of Representatives justice panel voted to find probable cause to bring the allegations against Sereno to an impeachment trial.

 

The impeachment case against Sereno is set to be forwarded to the House in plenary. Should a third of the House vote to approve the justice committee's report, the case will reach the Senate, which will act as the impeachment court.

The petitioners also pointed out that the onus of determining Sereno's qualifications for the chief justice post falls on the Judicial and Bar Council, "which resolved the issue in the affirmative, considering that the Respondent was included in its shortlist of nominees."

 

Calida earlier asserted that Sereno "flunked the test of integrity when she failed to file more or less 10 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth" when she applied for the position in 2012.

 

The group, however argued that the determination of a candidate's qualification is vested upon the JBC.

 

They pointed out that despite Sereno's alleged non-filing, the JBC, tasked by the Constitution to , the council "determined that the respoondent possessed the integrity as required by the Constitution."

 

Sereno, in her filed comment on Calida's petition, raised that the JBC relaxed the SALN requirement to all applicants and not only to her.

 

READ: Sereno: SALN requirement relaxed for other chief justice applicants

 

The JBC also deemed that her "attempt to comply" with the requirements is of "substantial compliance."

 

READ: Magistrates say Sereno's inclusion on chief justice shortlist an 'injustice' 

 

Sereno has been on leave since March 1. She said that this is in preparation for her looming impeachment trial at the Senate.