Will Sereno now lead the Opposition?

The recent Supreme Court decision ousting Maria Lourdes Sereno as Chief Justice may have wrote finis to her judicial career, but it has thrusted her instead into an entirely different role. As she braces ahead for what the former CJ calls as the bigger fight for truth and justice, Sereno has trudged a path differently from what then Chief Justice Corona took. While the then CJ Corona silently faded into the sunset after his impeachment, Sereno seems ready to take up a fight with President Duterte himself. In this new role, she could be the leader which various opposition to the President can rally behind. Note that the erstwhile dominant political party, the LP, has since lost steam with its top leaders engrossed in defending their role in the dengvaxia controversy. And in the Senate, once the bastion of the Liberals, the LP has been reduced into anonymity under a party President whose lack of fire is only exceeded by uninspired leadership. Sereno could then provide anti-Duterte forces with spunk and intellect. Even during the entire quo warranto episode, the Chief Justice has been speaking before various groups trivializing the issue into political oneliners. She has in fact breached the thin line that separates her search for justice from political sloganeering. In a bizarre twist of event, the former CJ even wrote a “tula ” for the activist nun whom President Duterte wants deported. In many of the various fora that she addressed, Sereno has appeared less of a magistrate under siege, and more of a political firebrand spewing vitriol. There are not a few who believed that had the then Chief Justice simply kept quiet away from the public stage, and instead painstakingly work on her differences with fellow justices, the result could have been different. But Sereno seemed to relish the unmitigated attack on her colleagues in the social media which, unfortunately, clouded her relationship with them. Hubris precedes a fall, and in the case of the CJ, the writing on the wall came when she openly accused the President of masterminding all her troubles. For a President who has shown contempt for Sereno, the statement is enough to goad him into declaring the CJ as his enemy and whose stint at the Supreme Court is bad for the country. Tough words enough to galvanize his faithful to go all out for her downfall. BRIEFLY NOTED: Big thanks to Ma’am Linda Alli Ganapin, “the best president PSU never had “, for her comments on my last piece. Also, to dear friend Norma Gonzaga Maca for her kind words. To readers of Restless Wind, thank you and may you all continue to stay restless