Coalition calls for judicial independence amid efforts to impeach Sereno

PHOTO by INQUIRER.net / FRANCES MANGOSING

About a hundred supporters of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno gathered on Monday at the Quezon City Memorial Circle to call for judicial independence amid an attempt to impeach the country’s top magistrate.

“We thus call on the Filipino people to stand up for what is right and oppose this patent injustice. We call on our fellow citizens to stand with Chief Justice Sereno in the face of partisan attack on judicial independence. We ask our people to echo her call to come to the defense of the rule of law,” said the members of the multi-sectoral group Coalition for Justice in a prepared statement.

They also said the impeachment proceedings are “a mockery of the rule of law.”

The group is composed of church people, students, workers, businessmen, lawyers, women’s organizations and human rights advocates.

Sereno is facing an impeachment complaint at the House of Representatives for alleged culpable violation of the Constitution as well as corruption, among others.

The group said the “persistent efforts of a powerful few” to impeach Sereno are “clearly baseless and malicious.”

“[It is] a brazen attempt to silence a jurist who has consistently handed down decisions that are pro-people and pro-Constitution,” they said.

The supporters also offered prayers for Sereno after the short program.

President Rodrigo Duterte has already denied having a hand on the impeachment bid against Sereno, but he had earlier challenged the chief magistrate as well as Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to resign from their posts.       /kga