‘Seize your Esther moment’

Dear Justices Andres Reyes Jr. and Alexander Gesmundo,

I am writing this appeal to you in the hope that you will reverse your decision granting the Supreme Court’s quo warranto petition against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

As I am but a mere lay person, I do not deem it my proper place to cite legal arguments to support this appeal. Instead, I would humbly appeal to your innermost humanity for you to revert and seize your “Esther moment.” I am referring of course to the same Esther considered to be one of the most admired heroines of the Old Testament.

I am sure you know the story.  By divine circumstances Esther, a Jew, became queen of Persia.  Then Haman, the king’s second in command with evil designs toward the Jewish people, managed to secure a royal decree ordering the execution of all Jews. It was then that Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, appealed to his niece.

“Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-15)

Long story short, Esther boldly defied the strict conventions of her kingdom, risked her own life and decisively saved her nation.

Justice Reyes and Justice Gesmundo, I truly believe that your appointment to the highest court in the land is rich with divine significance.  I truly believe that you have been placed in this very position precisely for this very moment.  You now hold in your hands the key to reversing a most abominable act of wrongdoing by your colleagues that has not only been regarded as patently wrong by respected luminaries of the legal profession, but has placed the survival of our fragile democracy in a very precarious state.

You have probably surmised the reason why this appeal is directed to the two of you, and not to the other six who voted to grant the quo warranto petition.  You have both distinguished yourselves by agreeing to keep the internal disputes among the high court justices within the confines of the Supreme Court instead of stooping to the highly politicized intramurals in Congress, thus preserving your neutrality.  To many, you two deserved to vote in that decision, unlike the six who, many agree, were patently compromised.

You are now at the threshold of seizing your place in the annals of our nation’s narrative, at the cusp of that elusive moment unattainable to many, a defining moment that can either catapult you to greatness, or relegate you to the dustbin of history. I fervently pray that you will be able to search your heart and do the right thing.

GERRY C. LINCO, Fairview, Quezon City