By Moira Encina
Eagle News Service
(Eagle News) – The Supreme Court set the oral arguments for the quo warranto petition against Chief Justice on-leave Maria Lourdes Sereno on April 10 at the tribunal’s session hall in Baguio City, and directed her to “personally appear” in the hearing.
On its first en banc session, the Supreme Court set the hearing for the oral arguments on Tuesday, April 10 at 2 p.m., as the high court granted Sereno’s Ad Cautelam Motion to Set for Oral Argument the quo warranto petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General.
The SC gave instructions for the Chief Justice “to attend personally and answer questions from the Court En Banc.”
At the same time, the high court also denied the “motion for leave to file motion for intervention and opposition-in-intervention” of Bayan Muna Party List dated March 19, 2018, and “joint motion for leave to intervene” filed by proposed intervenors led by former Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) director Zorayda Amelia Alonzo.
But the SC noted the “opposition-in-intervention” dated March 23, 2018 filed by the Board of Governors of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).
The IBP claimed the move to oust Sereno from the high court through the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida was “fatally flawed.”
The IBP also claimed that Sereno had passed the Judicial and Bar Council twice – first when she applied as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and second when she applied for the post of Chief Justice in 2012.
It added that JBC had allegedly waived the requirement for the Statement of Assets Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) for the candidates for the position of Chief Justice.
Calida filed the quo warranto petition, on March 5, saying that Sereno was ineligible from the start to hold the post because of her failure to file at least 10 SALNs including the time that she served as professor of University of the Philippines College of Law. (Eagle News Service)
