Sereno supporters sue Calida for graft, malversation, misconduct

Solicitor General Jose Calida (File photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

A vocal supporter of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Thursday filed a graft, malversation and misconduct complaint against Solicitor General Jose Calida for failing to divest his majority stake in a security agency that has won government contracts.

In her complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman, retired businesswoman Jocelyn Marie Acosta-Nisperos also said Calida should be prosecuted for “unconstitutionally initiating” the quo warranto petition to oust Sereno as Chief Justice and for showing bias in favor of the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Nisperos said Calida also “diverted” P1.8 million in public funds to his alleged 22-year-old mistress, but she did not provide any evidence of the alleged malversation.

Calida did not respond to requests for comment from various media outlets.

Silent Majority

Nisperos was one of the founders of the Silent Majority, which backed the candidacies of Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo in the 2016 polls. The group is critical of the Duterte administration and supports the embattled Chief Justice.

Her 14-page complaint said Calida’s wife “confronted him at his office on 23 April 2018” after discovering his alleged “affair and the corruption.”

The complaint said Calida was “guilty of malversation,” but it did not explain how the alleged mistress received the money from him.

“We do not have evidence about the relationship, although we have reliable [information] from verified sources who confirmed what really happened on April 23,” Nisperos told reporters.

She admitted that the alleged immoral relationship was the “unverified part” of her complaint that she urged the Ombudsman to investigate.

Security agency

She presented a general information sheet from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showing that Calida and his family-owned Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency Inc. (Visai).

The SEC document dated Sept. 27, 2016, nearly three months after Calida took office, that showed he was member of the board who owned 60 percent of the security agency while his wife and three children each owned 10 percent.

Visai provides private security services for the National Economic and Development Authority, National Anti-Poverty Commission, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and National Parks Development Corp., according to the complaint.

The security service contracts were awarded from August 2016 to January 2018, while Calida was already the government’s chief attorney, Nisperos added.

Facebook posts

She provided the Ombudsman printed screenshots of Facebook posts by supposed Visai employees that prove Calida “continued to be the ‘big boss’ of Visai.”

She said Calida “cannot be the lawyer of the government, at the same time its client” because being so “places the government at a disadvantageous position.”

Calida violated Section 9 of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards, which requires officials to divest their business interests within 30 days of assuming office, or their shareholdings within 60 days, she said.

Nisperos said Calida’s move to oust Sereno outside the impeachment process was unconstitutional. Calida also violated the antigraft law by “inducing” other public officials—the Supreme Court magistrates in this case—to “sustain an illegal act and a violation of the Constitution,” she added.

Calida accused Sereno of failing to submit all her statesments of assets, liabilities and net worth required by the Judicial and Bar Council to justify his move to seek her ouster from the high tribunal.

But Nisperos said the Chief Justice already met the constitutional requirements of citizenship, age and 15-year minimum law practice required by the post. The high tribunal was expected to rule on Calida’s petition today.

Code of Conduct

Nisperos added that Calida violated the Code of Conduct when he rejected her own request for a similar quo warranto petition on the same grounds against Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro.

She said Calida also was biased in favor of the Marcoses, citing a Facebook post by former Presidential Commission on Good Government Commissioner Ruben Carranza, who had attributed the Duterte administration’s failure to bid out any of the dictator’s family’s confiscated property in 2017 to Calida.

She said Calida, whom she described as a “true blue Marcos supporter,” backed the abolition of the PCGG, the main agency in charge of recovering the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses. — WITH A REPORT FROM DONA PAZZIBUGAN