A former Supreme Court (SC) justice on Thursday said that quo warranto proceedings can be undertaken to stop any government official, including impeachable officials such as Chief Justice on-leave Maria Lourdes Sereno, from further holding office.
In a press briefing on Thursday, former Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura said “a remedy such as quo warranto should be made available against everybody, even against impeachable officials.”
“Quo warranto is a process that attacks the validity of the title of a person to a public office,” Nachura said when asked by the media if a quo warranto case may be used against impeachable officials.
“It can be used to question the right of a public officer to continue holding public office, if there is an irregularity to the title of public office,” the former magistrate explained.
If a quo warranto case proves that the public official’s title would be proven invalid, Nachura said that it does not “remove” an impeachable official, saying that “it is as if there was no valid appointment in the first place.”
He, however, refused to comment on the merits of the quo warranto case filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida against Sereno since he may pre-empt the SC’s decision.
In his petition, Calida sought to oust Sereno from the high court on the basis that she allegedly failed to file her complete Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN) when she applied for the office of Chief Justice.
Sereno’s camp insisted that the SC has no jurisdiction over Calida’s quo warranto petition, arguing that the chief magistrate was an impeachable official./jpv
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