Who has the upper hand?
The enemies of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno are apparently afraid the impeachment case against her might be found weak so they tossed it to the justices. If the justices vote against the quo warranto petition, they will incur the enmity of President Duterte. If they vote in favor of the petition and usurp the Senate’s authority to impeach, they will have set an unwelcome precedence wherein each of them will be vulnerable to the same kind of petition especially when the administration changes hands. After all, Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro may also be called upon to account for her incomplete documentation as exposed by Sereno during the hearing. De Castro protested, “I am not the one being tried here.” But given her accusatory style, it was rather odd of her not to issue any denial of what was insinuated by Sereno. Afraid to magnify it and trigger an investigation?
By now De Castro and the other justices may have realized what Solicitor General Jose Calida got them into. That is, if they were imaginative enough to smell the constitutional and personal hazards whichever way they vote. They must be fuming, “This woman Sereno knows the odds against her are overwhelming; why can’t she just quit and rid us of this discomfiting dilemma?” But Sereno is not stupid. She won’t make it that easy for them. The anti-Sereno camp is not stupid either not to sense the woman’s steel-willed determination at least, to frustrate them. Now they are relying on the rallies of the judiciary’s rank and file (again) to pressure Sereno to quit and remove from the justices’ hands what they now realize must be an extremely “lose-lose” task.
They may not have directly solicited their subordinates’ cooperation but from their increasingly hostile pronouncements against Sereno, they leave no doubt as to where they wish their subordinates’ sympathies should be. Those indirectly incited rallies might even cast doubt on the justices’ integrity, if not their dignity.
FERNANDO GARCIA, [email protected]
