SOLICITOR General Jose Calida on Tuesday, March 27, questioned the authenticity of the Statement of Assets Liabilities and Networth (SALN) that Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno submitted to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) when she applied for the post in 2012.
In a statement, Calida said that Sereno's 2006 SALN has no stamp receipt from the University of the Philippines and was signed only on July 27, 2010, or on the day it was submitted to the JBC.
The copy was also not notarized, Calida said.
“It appears that she fabricated her 2006 SALN in an attempt to submit a SALN to the JBC during her application for Associate Justice in 2010," he said.
Aside from this, Calida said Sereno's SALN dated December 31, 1998 was filed only in 2003, five years beyond the period required by law and her SALN dated June 22, 2012, three years after the prescribed period had lapsed.
The solicitor general said Sereno committed gross misinterpretation before the JBC when she said that she cannot submit her SALNs as she could no longer retrieve those she had filed duing her tenure as UP professor.
Calida said the truth is that Sereno had just failed to file her SALNs 11 times, or from 1986 to 2006.
He said Sereno's repeated failure to file her SALNs and her dishonesty with the JBC show her lack of integrity.
"These perjurious acts further bolster Sereno's utter lack of integrity," he said.
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) recently asked the Supreme Court through a quo warranto petition to invalidate Sereno's appointment as Chief Justice over her non-submission of SALNs.
The OSG said the blatant disregard of Sereno to submit her SALNs proves her lack of integrity hence she is unlawfully holding her post as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. (SunStar Philippines)