Quit, court employees tell CJ; Leni hits quo warranto
Vice President Leni Robredo warned the nation about the quo warranto petition to oust Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno as judges and court employees renewed their call yesterday for the resignation of the chief magistrate.
The court employees again wore red shirts and red neckties during the flag-raising
ceremony at the SC as the tribunal is set to decide this Friday on the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida. Court sources said at least nine SC justices wanted Sereno’s ouster; three are against while two are ambivalent about the issue.
Philippine Judges Association (PJA) president Judge Felix Reyes and SC Employees Association (SCEA) president Erwin Ocson were spotted wearing red.
In a brief statement yesterday, SCEA said they again held the “Red Monday” protest to continue their call for change in the judiciary.
“This is to show our collective action to show the truth and pursue reform in the Supreme Court and the judiciary,” the group stressed in Filipino.
Both PJA and SCEA earlier issued a joint manifesto calling for the resignation of Sereno “to give the entire judiciary the opportunity to move forward and get back to order.”
The organizations cited “demoralization” among their ranks and stressed that the impeachment proceedings against Sereno had placed the “entire judiciary in disrepute, thereby affecting the honor and integrity” of the magistrates and judges.
In an interview, Oscon said Sereno has not addressed other issues since she assumed the top judicial post in 2012. Oscon did not discuss the issues because of the sub judice rule due to the pending quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida against Sereno before the SC.
“The real reason behind this are the acts and policies of the Chief Justice which really affected the employees,” he stressed.
Reyes, meanwhile, explained that the PJA joined the call for Sereno’s resignation after “looking at the big picture and what’s best for all of us.”
A civil society group also held a protest action outside the SC and called for Sereno’s resignation.
Members of the Citizens’ Crime Watch (CCW) led by lawyer Ferdinand Topacio asked Sereno to resign for her own benefit.
Topacio stressed that only by resignation will Sereno be able to preserve her title as chief justice because if the SC grants Calida’s petition, her name would be removed from the records of chief justices.
“If she resigns instead, her name and position as chief justice will be preserved in the annals of judicial history. She gets to keep her portrait there in the Supreme Court as a former chief justice,” he said.
“It could actually be heroic on her part because it could end the conflict inside the SC. She will emerge a larger person by making the sacrifice for the sake of the country and the people so that this issue will come to an end and we can go on with our lives,” he added.
Topacio, chair of the CCW’s legal committee, maintained that their resignation call against Sereno is not personal.
“We’re not calling for her resignation just because we hate her. This is just part of the process. It would appear that she’s not qualified and I believe that if the majority of her colleagues or her brethren in the Supreme Court finds it to be so, well it should be time for her to go,” he pointed out.
Robredo rallies behind Sereno
Meanwhile, Robredo yesterday called on Filipinos to stand against the quo warranto case against the Chief Justice.
In a forum on the Philippine judicial system at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, Robredo said as the duly elected vice president, she would do everything in her power to “right this wrong.”
“We just can’t be silent amid the darkness brought by these events in the past months. We need to set aside our fear and fight for our judiciary, because this was established to give protection to the ordinary citizens and not to be used as a weapon of those who are in power,” she said in Filipino, drawing applause from the audience, which included human rights advocates.
Robredo, a lawyer, stressed the quo warranto case against Sereno, should it succeed, can be the “final blow to the ideal of justice we all depend on.”
“It can hit us more than once: it tramples our Constitution, as well as coopts one of its foundations. It weaponizes the courts and if we allow it, a quo warranto can be used as a weapon of intimidation, to kill dissent,” she added.
Several individuals, including former and current government officials, have signed a petition urging the SC to dismiss the quo warranto case against Sereno.
Robredo was not among the signatories of the petition, which was spearheaded by the group change.org.
In filing the quo warranto case against Sereno, Calida sought the nullification of her appointment as chief justice due to her alleged failure to meet the “integrity test” when she submitted only three of her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth in 2012 when the JBC rules required at leasts 10 SALNs.
Under Rule 66 of the Rules of Court, a quo warranto petition may be initiated by the Solicitor General when “directed by the President of the Philippines, or when upon complaint or otherwise he has good reason to believe that any case specified in the preceding section can be established by proof, must commence such action.”
Sereno has called for the inhibition of six magistrates for alleged bias against her – Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam and Samuel Martires.
The SC is set to decide on Sereno’s case in a special session on May 11.