The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) filed a motion of reconsideration asking the Supreme Court (SC) to reverse its decision to oust former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
In the document, IBP said that SC could only remove Sereno from her Chief Justice post through an impeachment trial.
IBP also called SC’s move to oust Sereno as “narrowly drawn” and “necessarily void.”
IBP also questioned SC’s interference of the Judicial Bar and Council’s (JBC) process of selecting candidates for Chief Justice when the High Court announced it will look into JBC’s screening process following Sereno’s ouster.
“The Senate, having been vested with the power to try impeachment cases by the Constitution itself, it behooves the Honorable Court to respect the Constitution’s grant of jurisdiction and refrain from exercising a power clearly bestowed by the Constitution on another Tribunal or otherwise frustrating the exercise of such power by the Constitutional Tribunal,” the IBP said in its pleading.
IBP added that the SC “failed to maintain the cold neutrality of an impartial judge when it engaged in its own evidence-gathering expedition” on Sereno’s alleged failure to submit her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) while in government service.
The SC en banc in May, voted 8-6 in favor of the quo warranto petition that sought to declare her appointment in 2012 invalid.
The first female chief justice immediately stepped out of her office after the “quo warranto” vote.
Among those who voted against the petition are Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr, Mariano del Castillo, Estela Perlas Bernabe, Marvic Leonen, and Benjamin Caguioa.
This is the first time the high court removed its own Chief Justice, a move questioned for violating Sereno’s constitutional rights.
