Zarate says Gadon can’t be trusted in quest for real justice

Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Carlos Zarate (CDN PHOTO/CHOY ROMANO)

A lawmaker on Wednesday rebutted lawyer Lorenzo Gadon for saying that the House Makabayan bloc and other groups have no legal standing to question the quo warranto case filed by the Solicitor General against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, in a statement, said Gadon, who filed the impeachment complaint against Sereno, “cannot be a trusted guidon in the quest for the rule of justice to prevail.”

“Obviously, as he is wont to do, he did not read the pleading in intervention that we filed where our standing or right to intervene as legislators and citizens is stated,” the congressman said.

As stated in their motion for leave before the Supreme Court (SC), Zarate explained that the quo warranto petition against Sereno deprives them of their “collective constitutional right to decide” on the pending impeachment case against the top magistrate.

As legislators, he said “we have personal and substantial interest which will be prejudiced as a result of the proceedings before this Honorable Court.”

“Unlike, Gadon who engaged in filthy and fetid fishing expeditions, our opposition in intervention on the quo warranto case is grounded on preserving the constitutional process of disciplining impeachable officials; ours is to oppose the further assault and weakening of the Supreme Court and the judiciary,” Zarate added.

Gadon earlier claimed that the group was “wrong for saying that the quo warranto destroys the independence of the judiciary.”

“Sereno may be removed by the process of quo warranto or impeachment, both may proceed independently of each other. Short of saying Sereno would be certainly removed from the CJ post as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow,” he said in a statement Tuesday.

The opposition Makabayan bloc, along with other progressive individuals and groups had asked the SC to junk the quo warranto case versus Sereno and to allow them to intervene in the said proceedings.

READ: Groups, former Senator ask SC to junk ouster case vs Sereno

The quo warranto petition seeking to disqualify Sereno as Chief Justice was filed by the Office of the Solicitor General last March 5, alleging that she was unqualified for the position. /jpv