Republic v.

Sereno
This is a petition for quo warranto against the incumbent Chief Justice,
Maria Lourdes Sereno. The Republic entreats this Court to declare the
respondent ineligible to hold the highest position in the Judiciary for failing to
regularly disclose her assets, liabilities, and net worth prior to her appointment
as an Associate Justice, and later as a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It seeks
to declare as void respondent Sereno’s appointment as Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court and to oust and altogether exclude respondent therefrom.

On August 13, 2010, Sereno was appointed by then President Benigno C.

Aquino III as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. When the position of the
Chief Justice was declared vacant in 2012, the JBC En Banc required the
incumbent Justices to submit all previous SALNs (up to 31 December 2011).
Justice Sereno had not submitted her SALNs for a period of ten (10) years, that is,
from 1986 to 2006. Notwithstanding her failure to submit her SALN, she was
listed as applicant No. 14 with an opposite annotation that she had "COMPLETE
REQUIREMENTS" and a note stating " considering that her government records
in the academe are more than 15 years old, it is reasonable to consider it
infeasible to retrieve all those files."

On August 24, 2012, Justice Sereno was appointed by then President

Aquino III as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Five years after her
appointment as Chief Justice, an impeachment complaint was filed by Atty. Larry
Gadon against Sereno for culpable violation of the Constitution, corruption, high
crimes, and betrayal of public trust. The complaint also alleged that respondent
failed to make truthful declarations in her SALNs.

In the present petition, the Republic, through the OSG (Solicitor General
Jose Calida), claims that an action for quo warranto is the proper remedy to
question the validity of respondent's appointment. It argues that quo
warranto may be resorted to even against impeachable officers and that Sereno's
assumption of the position as Chief Justice under the color of an executive
appointment is a public wrong correctible by quo warranto.