SC justices vote on Sereno’s fate on Friday, says source

The Supreme Court is scheduled on Friday to vote on the draft decision whether or not to uphold the quo warranto case Solicitor General Jose Calida filed against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, a reliable source told GMA News.

According to Tricia Zafra's report on "24 Oras", there are indications that Sereno's colleagues will vote to oust Sereno on the basis of the petition questioning the validity of her appointment by then President Benigno Aquino III in 2012.

A Manila Times report said that a majority of Supreme Court justices believed that Sereno's appointment as Chief Justice was not valid.

This is supposedly because she failed to submit the required number of statements of assets, liabilities and net worth to the Judicial and Bar Council when she was applying for the post.

Supreme Court spokesman Attorney Theodore Te said the high tribunal has yet to reach a concensus on the matter and asked that the public wait for the ruling when it is promulgated.

Sereno's camp said the report on the tribunal taking a vote on her fate on May 11 was a trial balloon to gauge the public's reaction.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines is hoping that the SC would recognize the impeachment trial as the sole forum through which the Chief Justice could be judged under the constitution.

The IBP has filed before the SC an opposition-in-intervention against the quo warranto case.

An official said the IBP was prepared to appeal the decision if the SC decided to uphold the quo warranto petition.

"There's still an avenue for us to have the court or to request the court to reconsider its decision in that eventuality," IBP president Attorney Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo said. —NB, GMA News