UPLB activists say Sereno ouster ‘opened doors to dictatorship’

SAN PEDRO CITY – A group of students, professors and alumni from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) called for judicial independence during an indignation rally Tuesday afternoon.

This was the second mobilization in the campus after the eight justices of the Supreme Court ousted its Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno by voting in favor of the quo warranto petition last Friday.

Lawyer Filemon Nolasco said the justices who approved Sereno’s ouster “had opened the doors to dictatorship.”

“(The decision) was very unconstitutional. It gave the president the power to remove a (member of the judiciary). (Duterte) was encroaching,” said Nolasco, spokesperson of the Movement Against Tyranny-Southern Tagalog.

Activists gathered around 4 p.m. at the Humanities Steps where UP’s Oblation statue was also draped with a black cloth.

Nolasco said they were supporting moves by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines to reverse Sereno’s ouster.