LOURDES SERENO’S LAW AND PERSIDA ACOSTA’S SCIENCE

MARCH is the month we celebrate women, and it is somewhat odd that we start this month with what can be misconstrued by feminists as another misogynistic attack on women. But this is not about gender. It is about the law and science. The gender of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Public Attorney’s Office ( PAO) Chief Persida Acosta is not the issue here.

Feminists complain about how men tend to diminish women by highlighting their predisposition to become emotional, irrational and hysterical. But it is a disservice to women to deploy the gender card and justify the undermining of law and science just because those who are being taken to task for violating their tenets happen to be women. After all, there are more women who are working to uphold the legal

This is not about Sereno and Acosta being women. This is about Sereno whose acts have undermined people’s trust in the equality of the law, and Acosta whose acts have eroded people’s trust in the rationality of science.

Maria Lourdes Sereno failed the psychological test for candidates for the high court and was assessed to have an average IQ. Many are already asking how she became the Chief Justice of the highest court of the land.

But these are transgressions that are not even strictly legal in nature, for indeed there is no law that bars people with character flaws and average IQs to become public servants. It is even safe to say that if such law does exist, it may even lead to a lot of vacancies in the government bureaucracy.

What is actually contentious is Sereno’s appointment to the judiciary, and later as its chief, despite the fact that she has violated the law not only once but twice.

She violated the law by not filing statements of assets, liabilities and net worth ( SALN) for at least 15 years while she was still working at the University of the Philippines ( UP). And according to the Bureau of Internal Revenue ( BIR), she also violated our tax laws. She did not pay the correct amount of taxes she owed the government when she lawyered for the Piatco case. It was revealed in the last hearing of the House justice committee that she owes the government at least P2 million in unpaid taxes.

Ordinary citizens have been punished for committing the same offenses. No less than the Supreme Court which Sereno now leads has decided on cases related to the erroneous or non- filing of SALNs, and to tax evasion.

Sereno’s continuing presence as Chief Justice is a clear reminder to people that some are luckier than others because they can get away with violating the law.

Sereno’s excuse is that she was given clearance by UP when she resigned despite her deficiency in repeatedly failing to file her SALN. She also now blames the BIR for not reminding her of her tax deficiencies. This is coming