CJ more prelate than magistrate

We have barely recovered from watching a vainglorious impostor masquerading as a chief justice, and now we are greeted with God’s gift to the judiciary, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Not content to claim that divine prerogative for herself, our new blessing from above appears to have slighted the brethren and, indeed, the rest of us, with her saying, “it was probably time to give the leadership of the high court to one of His humble servants”

(Inquirer, 9/4/12). Sometimes what we don’t say is as meaningful as what we do say. If not “His humble servants,” what then does she make of the rest of the brethren—“bumbling emissaries of Darkness”?

In the past weeks and months, the debate and the discussions over the Reproductive Health bill have been building to a clamor that will shortly come to a point of legislative decision. We find ourselves with the nation’s fresh-faced Chief Justice fatuously placing herself in a position where she can and should be mocked for sounding more like a prelate than a magistrate, just as we have a public issue where religion and state are in conflict. A chief justice ought to be more circumspect.

Everyone deserves a chance to prove himself or herself, and that much should be given the new chief justice. But one has to say: She could have done much better in her first week on the job. She is now chief justice, and I know it is neither here nor there, but it did cross my mind that those passed over for the role, probably would have done better.

Her redeeming(!) qualities lie ahead of us!

—JAY MENDOZA,

jose.manrico@gmail.com