MANILA – The Supreme Court dismissed on Tuesday the motion for reconsideration that Maria Lourdes Sereno filed against her removal as chief justice.
Sereno’s former colleagues voted 8-6 to reject the appeal for “lack of merit,” spokesperson Theodore Te said, adding that the high court will no longer entertain any more pleadings to reverse the verdict.
“Respondent has not presented any convincing ground that would merit a modification or reversal of our May 11, 2018 decision,” Te said as head the latest ruling.
In its May 11 decision the magistrates made the same votes to unseat Sereno as the country’s top magistrate, favoring a quo warranto petition alleging that her appointment was invalid.
Voting to dismiss Sereno’s motion were associate justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Andres Reyes Jr., Lucas Bersamin, Samuel Martires, Alexander Gesmundo, Noel Tijam, and Francis Jardeleza.
Favoring Sereno’s appeal were Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and associate justices Marvic Leonen, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Mariano del Castillo, Estela Perez-Bernabe, and Benjamin Alfredo Caguioa.
Associate Justice Tijam was the ponente of the verdict.
Solicitor General Jose Calida initiated the quo warranto proceedings against Sereno on the basis of an invalid appointment for her failure to file statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs).
In her appeal Sereno argued that the Supreme Court had no authority to remove from office an impeachable official like the chief justice.
Her failure to submit all the required SALNs could not be a basis for adjudging her lack of integrity and dishonesty, she said.
The decision, Sereno stressed, made baseless conclusions that are unsupported by evidence.
Moreover, the Supreme Court should not have favored the quo warranto plea because it already went beyond the one-year prescriptive period for its filing, she added.
Sereno became the Philippines’ first female chief justice and, at 52, the second youngest to head the judiciary when she was appointed in 2012 by then President Benigno Aquino III to replace impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona./PN
