SC denies request for SALN

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court has rejected lawyer Lorenzo Gadon twice in a week after the SC announced yesterday that the magistrates denied his request to obtain copies of the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) of SC Associate Justice Mario Victor Leonen.

The SC also denied during yesterday’s full-court session a similar request by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to get copies of Leonen’s SALN.

Voting unanimously, 14 members of the SC denied Gadon and the OSG’s requests. Leonen reportedly did not take part in the voting.

SC spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka confirmed that the SC “unanimously resolved” to deny both requests “for purposes of preparing a quo warranto petition.”

In a Sept. 7 letter to the SC, Gadon requested copies of Leonen’s SALN from 1990 to 2011, reportedly required when he joined the High Tribunal in 2012.

There are allegations that Leonen did not file his SALN when he was with the University of the Philippines from 1989 until 2003, and from 2008 until 2009.

Gadon had also requested the OSG to file a quo warranto petition that could result in Leonen’s removal as SC justice.

A week ago, the SC denied, for lack of merit, Gadon’s petition to declare Republic Act 6639, which renamed the Manila International Airport as the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, as null and void.