Editing Quo warranto (section)

==== {{lang|la|Quo warranto}} of non-elected appointees ====
{{See also|Quo warranto petition against Maria Lourdes Sereno|label 1=''Quo warranto'' petition against Maria Lourdes Sereno}}

{{lang|la|Quo warranto}} petitions, when successful, do not "remove" someone from office—they declare the very appointment itself [[null and void]] {{lang|la|[[ab initio]]}}, meaning that the office was never legally held as it has been declared to have been assumed under [[false pretenses]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |last=Cabato |first=Regine |date=2018-06-20 |title=Lawyers: Supreme Court cases with tiebreaking Sereno vote can be questioned |language=en |work=CNN Philippines |url=https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/06/20/fajardo-vitangcol-supreme-court-tiebreaker-cases-sereno-vote-question.html |access-date=2020-06-09 |archive-date=2020-06-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609152916/https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/06/20/fajardo-vitangcol-supreme-court-tiebreaker-cases-sereno-vote-question.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> This is precisely what happened in the highly controversial [[Quo warranto petition against Maria Lourdes Sereno|''quo warranto'' petition against Maria Lourdes Sereno]]. Sereno had served on the Supreme Court of the Philippines as ''de facto'' [[Chief Justice of the Philippines]] from 2012 to 2018, and as a regular [[Associate Justice of the Philippines|Associate Justice]] since August 2010, when she was appointed by [[President of the Philippines|President]] [[Benigno Aquino III]]. Instead of removing Sereno from office by the mechanism of impeachment, Callida chose to use what one justice called this "road less travelled" of {{lang|la|quo warranto}}.