To Sereno sidetracking read issue

During oral arguments conducted by the Supreme Court on the quo warranto petition filed against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno by the solicitor general, Associate Justice Marvic Leonen reportedly uttered this supposedly well-applauded line in staunch defense of his fellow Noynoy Aquino-appointee in the high court: “If integrity were measured by one piece of paper, then God help us.”

No wonder that line was well-applauded, it had a very nice ring to it. Alas, if only correctness is proven by a single line. But thank God it is not. Because Leonen could not have been more grossly wrong. When it comes to integrity, the measure is far less than a piece of paper, or even half of it. Mr. Associate Justice Leonen, Sir, when it comes to integrity, there is only one measure: It is either you have it or you don’t.

If Sereno had the slightest shred of Leonen’s paper measure, she should have answered directly the issues that prompted the quo warranto petition against her, which is that she failed to satisfactorily comply with the requirements for her to qualify to become chief justice, in particular her failure to submit a number of SALNs or statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, the very pieces of paper that Leonen wrongfully edified as measures of integrity.

Instead of answering the issues directly, Sereno asked her fellow justices if they would be willing to answer questions if they themselves were subjected to similar quo warranto petitions. She then engaged the other justices in lengthy exchanges that did not really dwell on the matter at hand but on simmering intramurals in the court that are only beginning to become apparent now.

But of course Sereno had no recourse but to approach the issues facing her in the only manner that is available to her, which is to muddle those issues by turning everything into a morality play and invoking political persecution. This is the same ploy she applied on President Duterte, by implicating him in an alleged plot to oust her, knowing perfectly well how the volatile Duterte would react.

But all of these are just ruses to hide the fact that Sereno is not fit to sit any further as chief justice. In fact she was never qualified to do so in the first place, which is precisely why there is now a quo warranto case against her. And it is good that San Beda Graduate School of Law dean Fr. Ranhilio Aquino shares my non-lawyer point of view that a quo warranto petition is not a violation of the Constitution, as insisted by Sereno’s defenders.

While it is true, and I fully agree, that impeachment is the only way to remove a chief justice, the quo warranto petition against Sereno is not an attempt to remove her. Rather, it is to bring to light the fact that she should not have been chief justice in the first place because of her failure to satisfy requirements. As impeachment is like divorce that removes the marriage bonds, a quo warranto petition is like annulment, seeking nullity of a marriage from the very beginning.

Sereno would like people to believe what she is facing is an assault on the judicial system. How sad that she would sink so low as to actually adopt the thinking of thieves who blame their poverty for taking what does not rightfully belong to them. If there is any assault on the judicial system, it is the one begun by Noynoy Aquino who appointed her chief justice over and above more senior and truly qualified aspirants, thereby undermining the very fabric of the institution.