“DISBARMENT is definitely an option” against Solicitor General Jose Calida on the basis of an alleged illicit affair and questions about a family-owned security agency, a group said Friday.
“If Calida doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, then definitely disbarment is an option,” Jocelyn Nisperos-Acosta, a member of The Silent Majority that is allied with the Liberal Party, said in front of the Office of the Solicitor General in Makati.
In a letter she sent to the Office of the Solicitor General, Acosta also asked Calida to make public his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth to prove his integrity.
She demanded that Calida show the public he had more integrity than ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
In other developments:
* The Judicial and Bar Council will wait for the final ruling of the Supreme Court on the quo warranto case against Sereno before it acts on the order of the high court that it open the process of nominations and applications for Sereno’s replacement, a member said Friday.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, a JBC member, told ABS-CBN News that the council, which held its regular meeting on Friday, “will open nominations/applications once the vacancy becomes permanent”•or when the quo warranto decision becomes final.
• The Supreme Court violated the Constitution with its decision to grant the quo warranto petition of the administration that unlawfully ousted Sereno, Senator Bam Aquino said Friday.
“They put in danger the democracy and rights of our the Filipino people. The Senate is now being challenged to put a stand for the people and democracy,” Aquino said.
• Representatives Edcel Lagman and Gary Alejano on Friday said impeaching the eight Supreme Court justices could be the best corrective step against their quo warranto ruling removing Sereno from her post.
They backed Rep. Tom Villarin’s initiative to file an impeachment complaint against Associate Justices Teresita de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam, Samuel Martires, Andres Reyes Jr. and Alexander Gesmundo who voted for the quo warranto.
“If magistrates who are sworn to uphold the Constitution subvert the very fundamental law by arrogating jurisdiction over an impeachable official, they deserve to be impeached,” Lagman said.
It was Calida who filed the quo warranto petition that pave the way for the ouster of Sereno for not being unqualified to be chief justice for not filing her SALNs.
“Being the architect of the Quo Warranto petition, you now have the burden of showing the people that you have more integrity than the Chief Justice,” Acosta’s letter said.
“This request is being made pursuant to the Freedom of Information People’s Manual which you signed as the Solicitor General of the Republic,” she said.
In particular, Acosta demanded that the chief state lawyer disclose his SALNs for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018.
“We hereby file a demand for your SALNs for the years 2016, 2017 ad 2018 so the people may see that you have accurately declared your family’s ownership of VISAI among other assets,” Acosta said.
Based on the Sept. 29, 2016 general information sheet of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Acosta claimed that Calida owned 60 percent of the stock of Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency Inc. while the members of his family owned the rest.
She said VISAI was the security agency of the National Economic Development Authority, the National Anti-Poverty Commission, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation and the National Parks Development Corporation.
“Your ownership of VISAI shows a clear conflict of interest,” Acosta said. With Macon Ramos-Araneta and Rio N. Araja
Acosta had previously asked Calida to also file a quo warranto case against high court Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro for her failure to submit her SALNs in 2012, when she also applied for the position of chief justice.
But Calida turned down her request.