Duterte is not bullying Sereno — Roque

President Rodrigo Duterte is not bullying Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Malacañang said on Friday, noting that she has done “done a magnificent job in alienating her colleagues” at the Supreme Court.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said  Sereno should not blame Duterte for the efforts to unseat her but her fellow justices who have insisted that she was not qualified to be the country’s top magistrate.

“Bakit niya ituturo ang Presidente? Ang pansinin niya yung mga kasama niya sa korte, dahil yung mga co-justices niya mismo nagsasabi na hindi siya karapat-dapat diyan,” Roque said in an online interview.

(Why is she blaming the President? She should look at her peers at the Court because her co-justices themselves have said that she is not qualified in that position.)

“In other words, hindi na po siya kinakailangang i-bully ng (she does not need to be bullied by the) Presidente, she has done a magnificent job in alienating her colleagues,” he said.

“Ang mga colleagues niya na mismo ang nagsasabi na hindi siya karapat-dapat diyan, hindi po ang Presidente (Her colleagues were the ones who told her that she does not deserve the position). The President has been spared from doing that by her own colleagues,” Roque said.

Voting 38-2 with zero abstentions, the House committee on justice found probable cause in allegations that Sereno committed culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, corruption, and other high crimes.

Lawyer Larry Gadon had accused Sereno of culpable violation of the Constitution, corruption, other high crimes, and betrayal of public trust.

Duterte denied on Tuesday that he was behind any effort to unseat the Chief Justice.

“’Yung project ng Supreme Court, sabihin niyo ako na naman nag-ano sa kanya [Sereno]. You can ask anybody — I never initiated ‘to si Sereno,” Duterte said in a speech at the oath-taking ceremony of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission officials in Malacañang.

(The project of the Supreme Court, you may say that I am behind in criticizing her. You can ask anybody, I never initiated anything against Sereno.)     /muf

READ: Duterte washes hands of oust-Sereno move