Veteran columnist to Sereno's failure to submit SALN: “Why the hell isn’t she quitting?”

At left part is the certification from the Ombudsman and the Judicial Bar Council that Sereno did not file her SALNs

“Why the hell isn’t she quitting?”

This is what veteran journalist Rigoberto Tiglao said after hearing the news that Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno did not file her Statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) for at least eight years when she was still in the government service.

All government employees and officials are required to file such document as stated not only in the Constitution but also in Administrative Code 1987 as well as Republic Act 6713.

In accordance to the law, failure to file SALN, is punishable by imprisonment of not more than five years.

“Can’t she see that with such demonstrated disdain for the Constitution and our laws, she cannot be in her post for a minute longer? She should spare the Supreme Court and our nation from suffering her insult to our rule of law.” Tiglao wrote on his Column in Manila Times.

Tiglao added that Sereno should try to find it in her conscience that it is embarrassing for the nation for her to continue being the chief justice after shamelessly violating the Constitution.

Tiglao also revealed the publicly released documents proving Sereno did not really submit her SALN for eight years. Here are the details.

·         Three officials of University of the Philippines, the state university where Sereno had worked as a legal researcher and instructor, testified before the House committee on justice in November 2017 that it doesn’t have copies, nor receipts of submissions, of the Chief Justice’s SALN from 2001 to 2009, except for the year 2002, or for eight years.

·         The office charged with keeping such records of the Ombudsman (to which Sereno was required to submit her SALNs) on December 4, 2017 issued a certification that they received no such documents from the Chief Justice for the years 1999 to 2007 and 2009. Strangely, she filed her SALN for 1998 only five years later, on December 16, 2003.

·         Similarly, the Judicial Bar Council informed the lower house’s Committee on Justice December 18, 2017 that Sereno did not submit her SALNs for the years 1999 to 2007, but did so for 2009 up to 2012.

Tiglao recalled that Sereno did not even claimed that she submitted her SALNs for the said years.

“Her very lame excuse is that one must assume she did since the UP gave her in September 2011 a certificate of clearance for all “academic/administrative responsibilities,” which she says includes the SALN-submission requirements. That claim is so stupid, and preposterous.” He added.

With this damning SALN case, Tiglao believes just like the many that Sereno should quit and spare the Senate, as well as the Filipinos as the tax payers of time and money in having to go thorough the impeachment trial.

Meanwhile, the said SALN issue is just one of the 24 charges being investigated by the House committee in preparation for the impeachment articles against her, among them are; the purchase of luxury vehicle, alleged falsification of court orders, hiring of IT consultant paid 12 million in just five years, even her vindictive action of firing the court psychiatrist, who administered the psychological test that she did not pass.

Source: Manila Times