MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court upheld its rejection of the Office of the Solicitor General’s appeal to be given copies of wealth declaration documents of Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, in preparation of a quo warranto petition.
In an en banc session on Tuesday, SC justices denied the OSG’s Motion for Reconsideration seeking the reversal of its September 15 resolution that denied the request of the office and lawyer Lorenzo Gadon.
The OSG and Gadon had asked for copies of the Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth of, and other information pertaining to Leonen, “for purposes of preparing a Quo Warranto petition,” SC spokesperson Brian Hosaka said on September 15.
The OSG has filed a quo warranto petition against ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, whose appointment as head of the judiciary her colleagues at the SC voted to void.
Gadon made his request to the SC known, while the OSG’s request for Leonen’s SALN was only made known through the SC PIO’s statement on the denial of the request in September.
Leonen is known as one of the few dissenters at the SC.
SALN was central to Solicitor General Jose Calida’s quo warranto petition against Sereno in 2018. In his petition, Calida said Sereno “flunked the test of integrity when she failed to file more or less 10 SALNs (when she applied for chief justice position in 2012).”
When the SC granted Calida’s petition and booted out Sereno as chief justice, former SC justice Vicente Mendoza warned that this will “undermine the security of tenure guaranteed by the constitution to public officers who are simply removable by impeachment.”