Embattled Chief Justice Maria Loudes Sereno seems to be preparing well for any eventuality regarding the cases she is facing.
Currently she is facing 2 legal hurdles, an impeachment
complaint that was filed in the House of Representatives. Senate is only
waiting for the articles of incorporation for it to constitute themselves as an
impeachment court. The second one is from the Office of the Solicitor General
wherein it asked the Supreme Court to oust the top magistrate of the land by
way of a quo warranto proceeding.
An interesting article was written by Philippine Daily
Inquirer ‘s Randy David, titled “Conflicting thoughts on CJ Sereno” which was
published last March 4, 2018. *
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| Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno (photo credit ABS-CBN) |
For the public consumption of our readers, we are quoting
snippets of that article written by Mr. David below, and to get the insights
how he describes the top magistrate of the land.
I am not myself a great fan of the Chief Justice. My one and only personal encounter with then Professor Meilou Sereno at the University of the Philippines was fleeting, but it left me with such a disturbing impression of her that I have since thought it prudent to avoid being in a conversation with her. Certainly, I had very strong reservations when President Benigno Aquino III appointed her to replace Chief Justice Renato Corona, who, despite being disgraced and impeached, had remained popular with the Court staff.
I have always thought
that President Aquino, who, back in 2010, questioned Chief Justice Corona’s
midnight appointment by the outgoing Arroyo administration, missed a crucial
opportunity to restore a sense of order at the high court when he appointed a
very junior magistrate like Justice Sereno to the position of chief justice. In
so doing, like Arroyo before him who put a higher premium on loyalty than on
what was good for the institution, he bypassed very senior magistrates,
including Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio. *
I have strong doubts
about the impeachability of the offenses with which Chief Justice Sereno is
charged. But whether she is removed from her position or not, I don’t think,
judging from her recent troubles with her fellow magistrates, which seem
symptomatic of her relationship with most of them, that she is in any position
to effectively lead the Court.
The Court is indeed a
collegial body. But an ethic of seniority usually pervades such settings. Chief
Justice Sereno’s appointment brazenly stood this ethic on its head. Under the
circumstances, it would have required a large reservoir of people skills and
humility on her part to neutralize the resentment that would have been
generated by her appointment.
But, from the start,
she didn’t seem inclined to do that. She displayed such a disconcerting sense
of being anointed that one would think she was being named to an ecclesiastical
rather than to a state office. At her first flag-raising ceremony at the Court
grounds, for instance, she told the assembled employees: “The whole world is
witness that this appointment is God’s will … Only God put me in this position.
It seemed like it was time to give the leadership of the Supreme Court to one
of his humble servants.” *
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