Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno accused the Office of Solicitor General (OSG) of “forum shopping” and usurping the exclusive power of Congress on impeachment cases as she asked the Supreme Court anew to dismiss the quo warranto petition against her.
In a supplemental memorandum filed by her lawyers on Friday, Sereno said the OSG “has committed willful and deliberate forum shopping, which should result in the outright dismissal of the quo warranto petition.”
The embattled chief justice noted that the issue raised on the quo warranto petition filed by the OSG and the articles of impeachment earlier approved by the House Committee on Justice are “not only related, but identical.”
Both questioned her eligibility and qualifications for the job and her failure to file her statement of assets, liability and net worth (SALN) as a University of the Philippines professor. Both also seek her removal from office.
“The forum-shopping in this case was willful and deliberate even though it was well-aware of the identical issues, subject matter, and relief sought in the impeachment proceeding,” Sereno said.
Forum shopping, or an act of filing two remedies in different courts, is a prohibited malpractice, and all its elements are present in the case, according to the chief justice. /ee