Sereno warns of ‘dictatorship’: All gov’t employees could be threatened by quo warranto

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Wednesday warned of a “dictatorship” that would ensue given the precedent set by Solicitor General Jose Calida’s bid to unseat her, which she said threatens all government employees. 

“It is effectively dictatorship, because the future of so many, the rights of so many, are being held in the hands of the solicitor general and his boss,” Sereno told law students at a forum at the Ateneo Law School in Makati City.

“…This concoction of theirs came out of a brew that had been mixed in dark places and is the gravest wound that they could ever inflict on the Constitution,” she added.

Sereno also lamented the “selected targeting” she faces, a situation she likens to “trying to kill a rat by burning the whole house.”

She had questioned Calida’s motives for filing the quo warranto plea, earning the ire of President Rodrigo Duterte, who told Congress to fast track the impeachment proceedings against her.

Calida denied he was ordered by the President to file the petition. Duterte, for his part, clarified that his remark was aimed at his partymates in the House of Representatives.

Quo warranto petition

Sereno said Calida’s claim that the prescription period of a quo warranto petition – the one-year window within which such a pleading could be filed – cannot apply against the state means any government employee can face a similar challenge to their authority to hold their post “even five months before their retirement.”

Further illustrating, she said a judge handing a case where one party is represented by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) can be “reminded” that the OSG can file a quo warranto petition against them.

“You jeopardize the job of the justices, the judges and all government employees. You allow selected targeting against the chief justice for reasons that are very obvious now, and you destroy the legal profession,” she said. 

Calida’s petition, which questions the validity of Sereno’s appointment to the chief justice post due to an alleged lack of integrity, has been submitted for resolution.

A decision could be reached by May, according to Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, who leads the Supreme Court while Sereno is on leave to prepare for a Senate impeachment trial. — RSJ, GMA News