Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justice Teresita de Castro (File photos from INQUIRER.net)
Under questioning by Siquijor Rep. Ramon Rocamora, Supreme Court Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro admitted on Wednesday she was on the short list of nominees for chief justice that the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) submitted to President Benigno Aquino III in 2012.
On that list, too, was then Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
“Yes, I was with those who applied,” De Castro said during the hearing of the House Committee on Justice to determine probable cause in the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Lorenzo “Larry” Gadon against Sereno.
De Castro added, without being prompted: “In fact, we were asked to submit our 10-year SALN (statement of assets, liabilities and net worth), from 2002 to 2012.”
“However, [then] Associate Justice Sereno was the most junior?” Rocamora asked.
De Castro replied: “Ah, yes.”
Rocamora asked: “Let me ask this question: How did you feel about the appointment of Sereno as chief justice?”
At this point, Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Fariñas objected, saying: “This is not relevant.”
De Castro said, however, that she would want to answer the question.
“I’ve been a justice for 20 years,” she said. “I would have no right to be a justice if I were controlled by my emotions. So this appointment of Sereno, chief justice, what can I do? The President appointed her.”
De Castro said it was her responsibility to speak up about what she found to be Sereno’s transgressions.
“What kind of Supreme Court justice am I if I do not?” she said.
Rocamora also asked whether De Castro’s judgment might be clouded by emotion or bias, but his colleagues stopped him, invoking House rules against “argumentative” questions. /atm