Tijam ‘alarmed’ by Sereno’s insinuation her case is a ‘fight between good and evil’

Supreme Court Associate Justice Noel Tijam (File photo by NOY MORCOSO / INQUIRER.net)

Supreme Court Justice Noel Tijam on Tuesday called the attention of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on her insinuation that the case against her was a fight between good and evil.

“I am just alarmed by the insinuation when you said evil will not triumph. It seemed that there is a morality play here, a fight between good and evil,” Tijam said during the oral arguments on the quo warranto case filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida at the high court.

“The members of the court are not obsessed by that. We will decide the case based on evidence presented,” Tijam added.

Tijam was one of the five justices that Sereno had wanted to inhibit themselves from hearing the quo warranto petition against her because they had testified against her in impeachment proceedings at the House of Representatives.

Tijam, however, denied the Sereno’s motion to inhibit.

Tijam corrected Sereno by saying he did not say that she violated the Constitution when she refused to appear in Congress.

“I wanted to prod you to attend the impeachment hearing because it is a constitutional mandate,” Tijam said. “If you continue to refuse to participate in the constitutional proceedings, it might result in culpable violation of the Constitution.”

“Your lawyer intentionally decrypted and removed certain parts of my statement and I said as Chief Justice you should set an example,” Tijam added.

He also clarified that they never voluntarily went to Congress to testify.

“Just to disabuse the minds of the public, the members of court who went to Congress did not go there voluntarily. We were invited as resource speakers. We were given permission by the en banc to testify on matters that are truthful,” Tijam said.

“I hope you are not angry with me because I wore a red tie in a particular flag ceremony,” he added. I did not know that you adhere to a particular color coding for purposes of determining bias or prejudice.” /atm