Policemen barred the multisectoral Coalition for Justice from staging a vigil outside the Supreme Court summer courthouse on Tuesday (April 10), when the court heard oral arguments regarding a quo warranto petition filed to oust Chief Justice-on-leave Ma. Lourdes Sereno. The protesters set up camp outside the SC road in Baguio City. Photo by EV Espiritu
BAGUIO CITY — Saying Lady Justice was being molested, supporters of Chief Justice-on-leave Maria Lourdes Sereno urged five Supreme Court justices to recuse themselves from hearing a quo warranto petition filed against the Court leader.
Gathering at the edge of a road fronting the SC summer Court House on Tuesday (April 10), Pastor Caloy Diño of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches said Justices Teresita de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, and Noel Tijam should not take part in Tuesday’s (April 11) oral arguments to determine whether the Court should proceed with the quo warranto plea of Solicitor General Jose Calida.
“If the Court fails to order the biased five to inhibit from this case, it may prove what many already suspect of a conspiracy between the executive and the judiciary to oust Sereno,” Diño said.
He spoke at a program after 150 members of the Coalition for Justice were barred from picketing the Court House.
“If a simple quo warranto petition, which is illegal, is still being heard, what else can’t they do,” Diño said.
Comic and activist Mae Paner, filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik, and former Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casino joined the rally for Sereno.
A smaller group composed of people who wore red shirts, were lined up on the other side of the road purportedly in support of the justices.
But no police men were lined up to block this group.