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2 SC justices say Sereno failed to comply with requirements for JBC application


Two Supreme Court (SC) justices on Monday asserted that Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno should not have been included in the list of nominees of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) for the position of high magistrate in 2012, as she was not able to comply with all the requirements needed in the application.

At the resumption of the House Committee on Justice hearing to determine probable cause on the impeachment complaint against Sereno, SC Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta said there was a "very clear deviation" from the existing rules of the JBC as regards the application of the current chief justice.

Peralta, who then presided the selection of the chief justice, said that Sereno had requested to be excluded from the requirement of submission of the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).

A certificate of clearance, he added, was submitted to prove that there were SALNs, but he said it was "putting the blame" on the University of the Philippines (UP) in the non-presentation of the SALN.

It was in the UP College of Law where Sereno taught from 1986 to 2006, which should have been covered in her SALN.

"This is not the certificate of clearance in order to escape one from filing, in order to be free from filing a SALN. The clearance that is required under the law is provided for in Article 218, that if you are a public official and you are resigning, then you are required to secure a clearance or any accountability. So it has nothing to do with RA 6713," Peralta said.

"So by that alone, I could have rejected or objected as chairman of the inclusion of the chief justice for the position of the chief justice," he added.

Peralta noted that when his wife applied for the position of presiding justice with the JBC, she was rejected as her National Bureau of Investigation clearance and medical test results were not validated, hence not being able to complete the requirements.

"If they allowed the chief justice to be voted upon a chief justice, why did they not allow my wife to be included in the selection for the presiding justice?" he said.

Peralta claimed that the JBC "manipulated" the application of his wife in order for her not to be included in the shortlist for the presiding justice.

"You can just imagine the manipulations that they have done? What kind of chief justice do we have if we'll allow that? Now you ask me, is the chief justice responsible for what she did or what they did to my wife, of course!" he said.

One of Sereno's spokespersons, lawyer Jojo Lacanilao, however, said that Peralta has an ax to grind with the Chief Justice.

"Justice Peralta should have some delicadeza in not allowing personal disappointments to color his testimonies before the [House] justice committee,"  lawyer Jojo Lacanilao, one of the spokespersons of Sereno, said in a statement.

Lacanilao said Peralta's wife, Court of Appeals associate justice Audrey Peralta, was excluded from the shortlist of nominees for CA Presiding Justice submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to President Rodrigo Duterte last year after some of her documentary requirements were unvalidated.

Sereno is currently the ex-officio chair of the JBC.

'Grave injustice'

For her part, SC Associate Justice Teresita De Castro said that it was a "grave injustice" to them as fellow candidates for chief justice at the time the inclusion of Sereno in the list despite failing to comply with the all the requirements.

"I believe ... grave injustice was done to us, the other candidates or the other applicants for the position of chief justice," she said.

De Castro said the JBC had required the candidates to submit all previous SALNs up to December 31, 2011 and a waiver in favor of the body of the confidentiality of local and foreign currency bank accounts under the Bank Secrecy Law and Foreign Currency Deposit Act.

"All of us complied with this requirement which was reduced to 10 years with respect to the SALN to be submitted. And also we executed a waiver of the secrecy of our deposit, and the purpose of that waiver is for the JBC to compare our bank records with the SALN," she said.

"So it is very important that the applicants will submit their SALN because how can you compare the bank deposit if the SALN are not submitted," she added.

De Castro pointed that the as per the announcement of the JBC, candidates with incomplete or out of date documentary requirements will not be interviewed or considered for nomination.

"Why is it that the JBC allowed the inclusion of then-associate justice Sereno in the applicants to be interviewed. She should have been excluded also from the interview, but she was interviewed!" she said.

Sereno, according to De Castro, submitted a letter to the JBC stating that she cannot submit any of her SALN when she was UP Law professor.

But Sereno did not even attempt to submit the 2002 SALN that was in the possession of the UP Human Resource Office, De Castro argued.

"Why did the JBC not require her to get certified true copies from the UP?" she said.

"Why did they do that to all others and yet what did they do then-associate justice Sereno? There is not even a substantial compliance because her letter says she can no longer submit any of her SALN from UP. There is non-compliance absolutely," she added.

Lack of requirements

JBC Executive Director Atty. Annaliza Ty-Capacite, however, said the application process was different at that time.

"The executive committee members do not determine yet whether a candidate should be included or excluded because of [lack of] requirements," she said.

"Those lacking requirements will still be interviewed or be given another deadline," she added.

Capacite explained that the applicant had "substantially complied" with the requirements for the position despite failure to submit SALNs for a period of time if "there is an attempt to comply."

Capacite, however, admitted that four other senior SC justices who also applied for the positions were able to submit their SALN for at least 10 years: Justice Antonio Carpio, 14 years, De Castro, 15 years, Presbitero Velasco Jr., 19 years; and Arturo Brion, 10 years.

This led Deputy Speaker Gwen Garcia to say that there may be "special treatment" for Sereno in her application.

The House justice panel is conducting deliberations to determine probable cause on the impeachment complaint lodged against Sereno. — RSJ, GMA News

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