‘I forgive them,’ De Castro to people calling her ‘ampalaya’

“I forgive them for they do not know what they are doing,” Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro said, quoting a Bible verse in Luke 23:34, when asked for reaction on people bashing her on social media calling her names after she testified against former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Retired Judge Toribio E. Ilao Jr., a regular member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) representing the private sector, asked De Castro during the public interview about the “ampalaya” [bitter gourd] name that she was called on social media.

De Castro was bashed on social media after she testified against Sereno during the impeachment trial in Congress making it appear that she does not like the fact that Sereno, a junior associate justice in 2012, was appointed chief justice instead of her, being already one of the senior justices then.

But De Castro said she prefer not to comment on her bashers.

“I will not respond [to their name-callings],” De Castro said.

“They do not know anything. They do not have a knowledge. I forgive them. They do not know what they are doing,” De Castro added.

She said her colleagues as well as the court employees know her work ethics, know what kind of a person she is. So if “they are the ones who have something negative to say, only then will I be concerned but there is none.” /jpv

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