Is Sereno hiding something? Calida asks at quo warranto oral argument

“Why is respondent [Chief Justice Maria Lourdes] Sereno so deathly afraid of quo warranto,” Solicitor General Jose Calida asked in his opening statement at the start of the oral argument on the quo warranto petition against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

“Is she hiding something?” Calida asked.

According to Calida, there are several issues on the statement of assets liabilities and net worth (SALN) that “becloud the validity of Sereno’s appointment as Associate Justice and later, Chief Justice.”

Calida said among the questions that the Supreme Court has to grapple with are the following:

• First, where are Sereno’s SALNS?
• Why did she not submit them before the Court?
• Why did she declare before the JBC that her SALNs were irretrievable?

* Why were her 1998, 2006, and 2009 SALNs belatedly filed?

* Why was her 2006 SALN not stamped received by UP?

* Why was it signed four years later? Why was it not notarized?

* Why was it signed only on the same day it was submitted to the JBC in July 2010?

• Why was her 2011 SALN not signed by her husband?
• Why did her 1991 SALN declare pieces of jewelry acquired from 1986 to 1991 although her 1990 SALN did not indicate those jewelry?

It was Calida who initiated the quo warranto proceeding to remove Sereno without undergoing the impeachment trial.

The oral argument is currently ongoing.       /muf

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