THE Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) was urged to file against Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro the same ouster case filed against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno at the Supreme Court.
The letter, submitted by a certain Jocelyn Marie Acosta to the OSG on Friday, April 20, stated that De Castro should be ousted from her post just like Sereno as she also did not submit her complete Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).
JBC records show that De Castro, who had spent almost 40 years in the government, submitted only 15 SALNs when she vied for the Chief Justice post and thus, she did not substantially complied with the SALN requirement as the JBC required "all SALNs," said Acosta.
The OSG initiated the filing of a quo warranto case against Sereno last March, upon acting on a letter filed by suspended lawyer Eligio Mallari that urged it to oust the Chief Justice through a quo warranto.
Mallari said Sereno's appointment is invalid due to her failure to submit her complete SALNs to the JBC.
"With due respect, I invoke the same grounds raised by Mr. Mallari in his letter as sufficient grounds for you to file a similar petition for quo warranto against Justice De Castro," Acosta's letter read.
Acosta said that De Castro deceived the public when she claimed during the Sereno impeachment hearing before the house committee on justice that she had substantially complied with the JBC requirement with her 15 SALNs.
"Following the logic employed by Mallari, Justice De Castro and yourself, Justice De Castro's non-submission of SALNs since 1973 shows that she also has deployed deception in claiming that she complied with the SALN requirement, thereby lacking integrity and is not qualified to sit as a justice of the Supreme Court," the letter read.
"As a citizen of this country and a taxpayer, I humbly request that the Solicitor General urgently initiate quo warranto proceedings against Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro for lacking integrity as a member of the Supreme Court. I anticipate that you would act with the same zeal as you did when you received the letter of Mallari in February 2018," it added.
The OSG has yet to respond to Acosta's letter. (SunStar Philippines)