ALBAY Representative Edcel Lagman said the "double barrel assault" against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno will fail as she has not committed any impeachable offenses.
Suspended lawyer Eligio Mallari, president of the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution, recently requested the Office of the Solicitor General to file a quo warranto petition to seek Sereno's ouster over her alleged failure to meet the qualifications of a Chief Justice.
Mallari asked the OSG to initiate the filing of the pleading, even amid the ongoing impeachment proceedings against Sereno at the House of Representatives.
"The new tack against Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno is a quo warranto petition in tandem with an impeachment trial before the Senate," Lagman said.
"This double-barrel assault against the chief magistrate is bound to boomerang because there are no credible and concrete impeachable offenses against Sereno, while the one-year prescriptive period for filing an action for quo warranto has long prescribed pursuant to Section 11 of Rule 66 of the Rules of Court," he added.
Lagman stressed that the appointment of Sereno is valid as she complied with the basic requirements of the Constitution and her appointment was endorsed to then President Benigno Aquino III.
Last week, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said the Office of the Solicitor General should also ask the Supreme Court to nullify the alleged invalid appointment of Sereno.
This was after it was discovered during the series of hearings on the impeachment complaint filed against Sereno that she had scored a failing grade in the psychiatric test administered by the JBC and that she failed to submit the required documents to the JBC when she applied for her position as Chief Justice in 2012.
Sereno has gone on leave since March 1, after the SC en banc reached a consensus for her to do so in light of the impeachment proceedings against her. (SunStar Philippines)