At the center of the separate impeachment and quo warranto cases is Sereno’s failure to submit all of her annual statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) as required when she applied for the post of associate justice of the Supreme Court in 2010 and chief justice in 2012. Running out of arguments, Sereno cited the “Doblada Doctrine,” in which a Pasig City sheriff was exonerated by the Supreme Court despite his missing SALNs. What Sereno got was a stinging rebuke from Associate Justice Noel Tijam, who told Sereno: “Integrity, chief justice, is not founded on jurisprudence.”With audacity, Sereno, in effect, said that she was exempted from the SALN law, with which all government employees must comply and for which Corona was impeached and convicted. It was the first time for a sitting chief justice to be grilled by her colleagues in open court, and, if we may add, humiliated in such a public manner. If not a Senate impeachment trial, the Supreme Court is likely to kick her out for lack of qualification and by extension, integrity.

Source: Manila Times April 12, 2018 16:18 UTC