Lacson: Give Sereno due process

[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]

[av_heading heading=’Lacson: Give Sereno due process’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’18’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY RANIE AZUE
[/av_heading]

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
Friday, March 16, 2018
[/av_textblock]

[av_textblock size=’18’ font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental vice governor Eugenio Jose Lacson is against the Office of the Solicitor General’s (OSG) move to remove Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno from office via a quo warranto petition.

Under the Constitution, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court could only be ousted through impeachment.

What is quo warranto?

The government or an individual may file a quo warranto petition against “a person who usurps, intrudes into, or unlawfully holds or exercises a public office, position or franchise,” according to Rule 66 of the Rules of Court.

The government may also lodge a quo warranto petition against “a public officer who does or suffers an act that, by the provision of law, constitutes a ground for the forfeiture of his office.”

Under the law, a solicitor general or public prosecutor may file a quo warranto petition upon the President’s order.

An individual also has the right to question someone’s position as long as he/she is the one claiming authority over that position, the law added.

But Lacson said it is not the “proper and legal” way to remove the Chief Justice. He added that Sereno must be given due process through an impeachment trial.

Under the Philippine law, the president, the vice president, Supreme Court (SC) justices, the Ombudsman, and members of constitutional commissions (Commission on Elections, Civil Service Commission and Commission on Audit) can only be removed from their positions through impeachment.

Sereno is facing impeachment for allegedly not including some of her income in her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth for years, the same issue that ousted former chief justice Renato Corona from the position.

Lacson said what the OSG did is something that the Supreme Court must not allow.

He stressed that Sereno is “very much ready” to undergo impeachment trials.

According to Lacson, Filipinos must be wary over Sereno’s impeachment as it would be a “bad precedent” that in every change of administration, the “highest magistrate of land” is replaced./PN
[/av_textblock]

[/av_one_full]