Multisectoral group protests against non-inhibiting SC justices

Demonstrations against five Supreme Court associate justices who refused to inhibit themselves in the quo warranto proceedings against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno were held in different locations nationwide Monday morning.

Coalition for Justice (CFJ) started a multisectoral alliance after the five judges refused to inhibit themselves from the petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida against Sereno.

The justices are Teresita de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, and Noel Tijam.

They were among the eight associate justices who testified against Sereno in the impeachment proceedings held at the House of Representatives and who forced chief justice to take an indefinite leave.

“The Supreme Court violated CJ Sereno’s right to due process when it condoned the participation in the recent oral arguments of five patently biased Justices,” the CFJ said in a statement.

In previous statements, Sereno said the five justices could not provide a fair decision.

“Due process of law requires a hearing before an impartial and disinterested tribunal and that every litigant is entitled to nothing less than the cold neutrality of an impartial judge,” Sereno said in her own petition.

In a recent report, a court source told the Inquirer that the five justices believed that “the reasons the Chief Justice raised against them were all baseless.”

Another source added that another judge considers Sereno’s accusations as “speculations and deliberate distortions.”

READ: 5 SC justices won’t inhibit selves in petition vs Sereno