Sereno: Who’s behind SolGen’s ouster move?

Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, claiming she was “battle-ready” for her impending Senate impeachment trial, on Friday said Solicitor General Jose Calida should explain what motivated him to file a case questioning her appointment as the top magistrate following President Duterte’s denial of any involvement in moves to oust her.

Sereno, who has criticized moves to remove her outside of the impeachment process, was referring  to the quo warranto petition filed by Calida in the high court early this week.

Particular impetus

“I think we have to ask the Solicitor General from which particular impetus or authority his actions flow. The President put it on record several times [that] he is not involved. But I guess we let people decide that question,” she told members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. “My thoughts on the matter will remain private.”

A quo warranto petition is a legal move to challenge a person’s appointment to a government position.

Section 2, Rule 66 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure says the Solicitor General or a public prosecutor can file such a petition on orders of the President. He can also act on a complaint or proceed with the petition if he has “good reason to believe” that the case can be established by proof.

Sereno repeated her call on the House of Representatives to file the impeachment case against her in the Senate at the “soonest possible time.”

She said she expected to be exonerated.

“I am confident that in time, the baselessness of the charges against me can come out. I am calm and battle-ready,” Sereno said.

Whatever the odds

“I just have to go through it regardless of my chances,” she said. “I don’t think the Chief Justice should signal in the slightest way that she will face challenges only when she has a good chance of winning. The message I want is that when the Chief Justice sees her cause is right, she will fight no matter the chances, regardless of the odds.”

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Mr. Duterte did not need to bully her out of office since she had already alienated the other justices to the point of wanting her out of the court.

“She has done a magnificent job at alienating her own colleagues,” he said in an interview with a pro-Duterte blogger. “Her own colleagues are saying she does not deserve to be in her post, not the President. The President has been spared from doing that by her own colleagues.”

If Sereno was being targeted for harassment, she should wonder why none of her colleagues was backing her up, he said.

He said he had learned that even the judges of the lower courts were set to call for her resignation.

Sereno was forced by 13 other members of the court to take an indefinite leave last week.

She said she had since focused on her defense “on all fronts.”

Asked what could be the reasons behind the moves to oust her, Sereno said her 18-year term as Chief Justice was “an attractive magnet for these kinds of actions.” They could also be due to a “confluence of politics—national politics, internal politics.”

‘Not enough fight in Pinoys’

“I think what people fail to see is that a Chief Justice with 18 years can also perform a lot of fundamental restructuring,” Sereno said.

Sereno was appointed by then President Benigno Aquino III in 2012. She would be serving, if she were not removed, for 18 years until she reaches 70, the retirement age for all justices.

Reiterating her vow not to resign, Sereno said she did not want to give the wrong message to Filipinos.

“There is not enough fight in Filipinos nowadays for the truth. The strength of one’s conviction seems to be waning among us,” Sereno said.

“We have to show that spirit once again. I don’t think it’s too much for me to go through this. I will go through it because it is an important point in our history. Our people must say there is still this kind of spirit,” she said. —WITH REPORTS FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA AND MARLON RAMOS