3 Supreme Court Justices: 'no ill feelings' towards Sereno
Associate Justices Lucas Bersamin, Diosadado Peralta and Samuel Martires appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Justice on the resumption of the impeachment proceeding against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Monday. They said that they have no biases nor grudges against the chief magistrate.
MANILA, Philippines — Three Associate Justices of the Supreme Court were united in saying that they do not bear any ill will against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno as the impeachment proceedings against her resumed Monday.
Associate Justices Lucas Bersamin, Diosdado Peralta and Samuel Martires appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Justice following last year's appearances of Justices Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Francis Jardeleza and Noel Tijam, and former Justice Arturo Brion.
Peralta said that he bears no grudges against Sereno. "I respect the Chief Justice. Anything that has been assigned to me, I accept it," he said.
"I never fought with the Chief Justice," he stressed.
Bersamin, for his part, said: "I came here with a sincere purpose: to honor the invitation of this committee. If this committee did not invite me, I will not have volunteered invitation here," he added.
"I bear no ill feelings against her. I love her as a leader of institution. I honor her difficulties. I am not biased against her."
During last year's proceedings, De Castro, Jardeleza, Tijam, and Brion all slammed Sereno for violations of the en banc's rules which allegedly cast doubts on its integrity. The heated testimonies of the justices seem to confirm the rumored division among the justices.
Martires, who was appointed to the high court only in March last year, said that if anyone among the three has the axe to grind against Sereno, it was him.
"It was common knowledge that she did not vote for me in the [Judicial and Bar Council]," Martires said.
But he recalled that when he was appointed to join the high court, Sereno apologized to him.
"I have nothing against the [chief justice]. I will not gain anything by making a story against her. She has been good to me and I have been good to her," Martires added.
The three justices were asked to shed light on the alleged delay of release of survivorship benefits to the kin retired members of the bench.
Complainant Larry Gadon said that Sereno committed culpable violation of the constitution when due to the creation of the Technical Working Group that studied the release of pension benefits.
READ: 'Court felt need for thorough examination of pension application'
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