Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno PHOTO/Noy Morcoso, INQUIRER.net
IN A NUTSHELL: Chief Justice unfazed by indifference of colleagues during PWJA event • She’s confident ‘we will all come around again’
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Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno has expressed confidence that her fellow justices would still come around in the end despite their seemingly lack of support for her in her impending impeachment trial in the Senate.
“In any organization, there will be occasions when these kinds of problems will arise, but I’m sure when the dust settles, we will all come around again,” Sereno said in a forum with Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP).
The lack of support for the Chief Justice was evident during a Philippine Women Judges Association (PWJA) event when her colleagues did not applaud her when she scored the House committee on justice for not giving her the opportunity to face her accusers.
“The [House] committee on Justice has denied me my right to confront and cross-examine the witnesses, and resource persons arraigned against me is nothing but blatantly unfair,” Sereno said in her speech during the 23rd PWJA national convention.
“I ask that we dispel all thoughts and impulses of malice and ill will; we must denounce gossiping and unfounded innuendos; we do not judge anyone until all the evidence is in,” the Chief Justice said.
Not only was there no applause from most of SC associate justices present in the event, but Associate Justice Teresita de Castro also chided Sereno, telling the audience that she should not have used the event to discuss her impeachment case./ac