Caguioa on Sereno ouster: SC committed suicide without honor

Published May 12, 2018 12:03pm

The Supreme Court's decision to oust Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno was like committing seppuku — an honorable manner of suicide practiced in Japan — but minus the honor.

This was according to Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, who in a 64-page dissenting opinion insisted that under Article XI, Section 2 of the Constitution, Sereno could not be removed via the quo warranto plea filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida, contrary to the position of his eight other colleagues who belonged to the majority.

Caguioa, who was joined in the minority by five other justices, lamented how the majority allowed Calida to take a "road less travelled... [because] it is not a sanctioned road."

"The other members of the Court — the Court en banc — are called upon to grin and bear the unbearable as travelling this prohibited road will be at the expense and to the extreme prejudice of the independence of the entire judiciary, the independence of the Court's individual members, and the freedom of discourse within the Court," he said.

"This case marks the time when the Court commits seppuku — without honor," Caguioa added, referring to the Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment, also called harakiri.

The magistrate expressed "deep shame and regret" over the SC's decision — which the tribunal said was immediately executory — to grant Calida's plea.

"No matter how dislikable a member of the Court is, the rules cannot be changed just to get rid of him, or her in this case," Caguioa said.

Not valid ground

Caguioa said even if, for argument's sake, quo warranto is available in Sereno's case, the non-submission or incomplete submission of her SALN — used by Calida as basis for his oust plea — is not a valid ground under the Constitution to question her eligibility as Chief Justice.

Likewise, the one-year prescriptive period for the filing of quo warranto had already lapsed a year after her appointment and assumption of office in 2012.

Questions on the Judicial Bar and Council's (JBC) determination of Sereno as being qualified for the post should be raised through a certiorari before her appointment, and not through a quo warranto, Caguioa added.

As to the certifications secured by Calida from the University of the Philippines Human Resources Development Office (UP HRDO) and the Office of the Ombudsman showing Sereno's alleged non-filing of her SALN, Caguioa said they "have already been destroyed by the discovery of other SALNs filed that were not found in the custodian's possession."

Caguioa said the certifications only proved that her SALNs were not in Sereno's files, but do not constitute proof as to the question of whether she had not filed her SALNs.

He said that according to the revised rules of the JBC in 2016, the submission of SALNs does not even constitute proof of a person's integrity.

The JBC only included it as a requirement in "reaction to the Congress' exercise of its wisdom that non-inclusion of assets in SALN was an impeachable offense."

"By ousting the Chief Justice through the expediency of holding that the Chief Justice failed this ‘test’ of integrity, it is actually the Court that fails," Caguioa lamented.

Caguioa said Calida's decision to run to the Supreme Court proved that the grounds for Sereno's impeachment "rest on shaky grounds."

"Understanding the inherent weakness of the grounds of impeachment and the improbability of ouster through the mode constitutionally provided, the Solicitor General has effectively shopped for a different forum to seek the Chief Justice's ouster," he said.

"This is not a road less travelled — it is a prohibited alleyway that, regrettably, the Court is now allowing passage through," he added.

Impeach hearings

Caguioa said the complaints raised against Sereno during the impeachment proceedings at the House of Representatives were all "internal matters" actionable within existing laws and could be resolved "within its own walls."

"The need to ventilate these matters before another forum is a disservice to the institution and to the individual members of the Court," Caguioa said.

"For the Court to now turn around and oust the Chief Justice on its own, without any constitutional basis, is an even greater disservice," he added.

Among those who testified against Sereno in the House proceedings were fellow magistrates Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, and Noel Tijam. Sereno had tried but failed to make them inhibit from the quo warranto case.

"This case is nothing more than cheap trickery couched as some gaudy innovation. Thus, in disposing of this case, it does not take a lot to state plainly the truth; it takes infinitely more effort to hide and bury it," Caguioa said. — MDM, GMA News

RELATED LINKS:

Main decision

Concurring opinion

Dissenting opinions

Tags: bejamincaguioa, marialourdessereno, supremecourt