{"id":209212,"date":"2019-04-09T21:42:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T01:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=209212"},"modified":"2019-04-09T21:42:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T01:42:04","slug":"sereno-pcij-urged-to-file-raps-vs-duterte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/09\/sereno-pcij-urged-to-file-raps-vs-duterte\/","title":{"rendered":"Sereno, PCIJ urged to file raps vs. Duterte"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this call after Sereno said it was the President\u2019s duty to explain increases in his family\u2019s earnings amid allegations they were involved in illegal drugs. (Photo by Supreme Court of the Philippines)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday dared former Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) to file charges against President Rodrigo R. Duterte if they believe that increases in his wealth are questionable.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this call after Sereno said it was the President\u2019s duty to explain increases in his family\u2019s earnings amid allegations they were involved in illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Atty. Sereno and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) believe that the increases relating to the President’s assets are ill-gotten wealth, they should file the appropriate charges instead of nitpicking and using media to create intrigue and put the President and his family in a bad light,\u201d Panelo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Earlier, PCIJ executive director Malou Mangahas has also asked the President to identify the source of his wealth.<\/p>\n

Panelo, who is also Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, reminded both Sereno and the PCIJ that they should first show proof of allegations on the President\u2019s ill-gotten wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all, \u2018ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat\u2019 — the burden of proof lies upon him who affirms, not on him who denies,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He also stressed anew that it was not a violation of the Constitution not to identify where Duterte\u2019s wealth came from.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law does not require the filer to explain the increases in their income, if there are any. Any contrary argument is an undue expansion of the commands of the law pertaining to the transparency of a public official or employee’s property,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Ironic<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, described Sereno\u2019s call for Duterte to make a public explanation on his income as \u201cironic\u201d considering that the Supreme Court (SC) ousted her for being ineligible to hold her position due to her failure to submit her SALNs as law professor at the University of the Philippines (UP).<\/p>\n

Sereno\u2019s ouster from the High Court marks the first time that a chief justice was removed through a quo warranto petition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find Atty. Ma. Lourdes Sereno’s comments on the President\u2019s wealth in relation to his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) ludicrous and ironic, considering that her appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was invalidated through a quo warranto petition by reason of her non-submission of the same,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cArticle 11, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution requires public officials to file their SALN. PRRD already did that, unlike Atty. Sereno who failed to faithfully file her SALNs while in UP when she applied for the top magistrate post at the High Court,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Sereno\u2019s remark came after the PCIJ, in a three-part report, found increases in the incomes of Duterte and his two adult children, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and former Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte while they were in office.<\/p>\n

The PCIJ report revealed that the Dutertes owned business assets that were not declared in their SALNs, including an unregistered law firm.<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, insisted that what he earned outside politics was none of their business and that majority of his earnings came from an inheritance from his mother, Soledad.<\/p>\n

Panelo echoed Duterte saying that the chief executive has properly declared his wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng gusto nating mangyari pag napirmahan na siya, habulin natin kung ano yung mga<\/em>\u00a0infra projects\u00a0na nasa<\/em>\u00a02019 (What we want to happen is that once it is signed, we can catch up with infra projects for 2019),\u201d Nograles said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday dared former Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":146340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philiippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209213,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209212\/revisions\/209213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}