CHIEF Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Sunday accused the Office of the Solicitor General of forum shopping and usurping the power of the House of Representatives to initiate and prosecute impeachment cases.
In her supplemental memorandum filed with the Supreme Court last Friday, Sereno”•through her lawyers led by Alex Poblador”•again sought the dismissal of the quo warranto petition against her, and this time on the ground that the OSG is allegedly guilty of forum shopping.
“The OSG has committed willful and deliberate forum shopping, which should result in the outright dismissal of the quo warranto petition,” Sereno said in a statement.
Forum shopping is a party’s action of looking for a court or judge that is deemed likely to render a favorable result. It is a prohibited practice.
Sereno said all the elements of forum shopping were present in the case.
She said the issue raised in the quo warranto petition and the Articles of Impeachment earlier approved by the House committee on justice were “not only related but identical.”
She said the reliefs prayed for in the two actions were both seeking 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.
The OSG, in its quo warranto petition, claims that Sereno lacks proven integrity because she allegedly failed to file all of her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth when she was a law professor at the University of the Philippines.
The Articles of Impeachment mounted the very same attack on her eligibility and qualifications based on her supposed non-filing of SALNs as UP professor.
Meanwhile, Sereno asked why none of the 33 members of the House committee on justice who approved the Articles of Impeachment “spoken against, objected to, or otherwise taken issue with,” the OSG’s “blatant arrogation” of the sole power of Congress to prosecute the impeachment case.
She also asked why Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez had taken a position that the impeachment process and the quo warranto proceeding may proceed simultaneously.
“The answer is plain: Those behind the impeachment before Congress and the Petition before this Honorable Court are one and the same,” Sereno said.
Sereno also hinted at the possible involvement of some members of the high court in the attempt to remove her from office through constitutional and extra-constitutional means.
“At the expense of the Constitution, law and settled jurisprudence, their singular goal and objective is to remove the Chief Justice from office,” Sereno said, referring to those behind her ouster.