CJ Sereno at MOPC
Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno inducted into office the 2015 officials and Board of Governors of the Manila Overseas Press Club during ceremonies held at the Grand Ballroom of the InterContinental Hotel in Makati. MOPC happens to be the oldest press club in Asia having been founded in 1945, and is the most prestigious in the Philippines.
Over the years, the MOPC has distinguished itself for having members that come from diverse sectors in society, from publishers and media people, diplomats, businessmen and public officials interacting with each other as they discuss some of the day’s most pressing issues.
The new set of officers is composed of chairman emeritus Emil Jurado, chairman Tony Lopez, vice chair Ray Espinosa, VP Elpi Cuna, VP-external Mike Toledo, secretary Eric Canoy, Nelia Gonzalez as treasurer and this columnist as president. Comprising the Board of Governors are Rollie Estabillo, Elizabeth Lee, Arthur Lopez, Bong Osorio, Maloli Espinosa-Supnet, Butch Raquel, Hector Villanueva, Raul Pangalangan, Hector Villanueva, Miwa Yamatoya as ex-officio member and former Justice Manuel Lazaro as legal counsel.
The induction also coincided with the MOPC Judicial Forum with Chief Justice Sereno as the keynote speaker. The Chief Justice talked about judicial reforms — a priority in her agenda — and shared the initiatives that are being made to speed up the resolution of cases and make judicial proceedings more transparent to the public. These include the uploading of decisions at the Supreme Court website and the availability of live streaming for court sessions.
The witty manner by which the lady chief justice graciously side-stepped loaded questions from a panel composed of a select group of journalists and the members of the audience made the evening intellectually stimulating and definitely a great success!
