Maria Lourdes Sereno is the chief justice who the Judicial and Bar Council’s psychiatrists graded a 4 (fail), with 5 being the lowest. She has apparently a mental disorder, aside from having an IQ of 109 (normal or average intelligence).
Sereno is the CJ whom the House Justice Committee, voted 33-1 on March 19, 2018 to impeach, on six counts:
1. Culpable violation of the Constitution and/or betrayal of public trust. Respondent committed culpable violation of the Constitution and/or betrayal of public trust when she repeatedly, deliberately, willfully and/or inexcusably could not submit her SALN from 1996 to 2006.
She failed to declare in her eleven filed statements of assets, liabilities and net worth for calendar years 1998, 2002, 2006, 2009, and 2010 to 2016, her 2.24 hectares of land in Mariveles, Bataan worth P44 million.
She failed to declare in her 2006 and 2009 SALN P13.8 million of her P32.49 million of PIATCO fees.
According to Rey Umali, Sereno failed to file her SALN 17 times: For the years 1987 to 1997, 1999 to 2001, and 2003 to 2005. She filed only three SALN, two of which were not even subscribed to.
Per the Solicitor General, Sereno did not file her SALN for 12 years—in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
She committed tax fraud in 2007 through 2009.
2. Corruption and betrayal of public trust when she misused P18 million of public funds for buying a P5 million bullet proof Land Cruiser (she already has 16 bodyguards), spending P11 million for an IT expert, and P3 million to stay at Shangri-La Boracay.
3. Culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust and/or other high crimes when she arrogated unto herself the powers reposed upon the Supreme Court as a collegial, deliberative and consultative body by issuing and causing to be issued Resolutions and Orders without the approval of, or contrary to what was agreed upon by the Supreme Court en banc.
4. Culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust and/or other high crimes when she deliberately and maliciously abused her position as the Chief Justice and ex officio Chairperson of the Judicial and Bar Council.
5. Culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust when she deliberately undermined and violated the principles of separation of powers among the three branches of government (Executive, Legislative and Judiciary).
6. Betrayal of public trust when she willfully and deliberately failed to comply with her oath of office by tyrannical abuse of discretionary power.
“Should the Supreme Court be burdened with the leadership of one who has caused the erosion of public faith in the Judiciary, who has lost the respect of her colleagues and subordinates, and whose fitness has been challenged by her equals? Could the people lower constitutional standards and confer on their leader merely tolerance, and not trust? What will happen to the Supreme Court and the Judiciary, and to the government as a whole in the next 12 years if she is acquitted and allowed to remain in office?” asked the House Judiciary Committee headed by Rep. Umali.
All six counts need not be proved by the House which will serve as the prosecutor against Sereno when the Senate meets as an impeachment court. One count is enough to remove her.
Chief Justice Renato Corona was removed because of omissions in his SALN (certain peso and dollar deposits were not disclosed). “Sereno’s case on SALN is even worse,” says Umali. Impeachment is a political process. The senator-judges will simply go by perceptions or the political mood. Conviction does not require guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Offhand, 18 senators (of the current 23 senators) need to vote against Sereno to impeach her. It seems Sereno is so damaged a good a senator voting not guilty will have a lot of explaining to do.
Interestingly, President Duterte has placed pork barrel queen Janet Napoles under the Witness Protection Program, in exchange perhaps, for a damaging testimony against the likes of a Drilon or a Pangilinan for allegedly receiving illegal pork barrel money.
Alternatively, Solicitor General Jose Calida has filed a quo warranto case against Sereno in a bid to remove her as chief justice. His argument: Sereno was not qualified from the start to be a justice or a chief justice because of failure to file SALN 12 times during the years she was a government official—as a law professor at UP and as a justice.
As a UP law professor, Sereno was/is a public official or a government employee.
SALN is required to be filed, yearly and on time, of government employees. When she was being considered for chief justice in 2012, Sereno lied to the Judicial and Bar Council, which by law and under the Constitution, screening applicants for justices, when she claimed she could not retrieve her SALNs, implying that they existed. There were none, and therefore, they could not be retrieved.
Because of her repetitious or habitual non-filing of SALNs, Sereno, the SolGen insists, lacks integrity. Because she didn’t file her SALNs, Sereno violated the law and the Constitution. Therefore, from the very start, she was not qualified to be justice and later chief justice. A person who is not qualified from the very start, should be removed, by quo warranto, for being a usurper and for in effect, stealing taxpayers’ money because she is drawing salaries that do not belong to her in the first place.
Quo warrranto is a novel proceeding. It questions by what right or warrant is a justice like Sereno holding on to an office she is not qualified to be in the first place. Under the Constitution, an official like the Chief Justice can only be removed by impeachment, and not by a sitting Supreme Court 13 of whose justices apparently are hostile to Sereno.
Sereno has decided to fight back up to the very end. “I will not resign,” she insists.
