My thoughts on the new Chief Justice Sereno

Our special presentation on our talk show Straight from the Sky tonight, we bring you a very frank and honest talk about Catholic Church matters with no less than Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, who is concurrently the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). It was a frank and honest talk because it was truly no-holds barred interview where Arch. Palma did not ask me to prepare a set of questions nor did he make any himself.

Call it timely that I got hold of Arch. Palma because of his super busy schedule, more so that it came from the heels of his official statement that was especially controversial… when he issued a statement saying “If we are a Catholic school, we should not teach anything contrary to the official teaching of the Church.” I wrote that in my column in the Philippine Star and I got a deluge of angry emails that most probably came from the 160 Ateneo professors that were supporting the RH bill.

That official statement coming from the CBCP resulted the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University to issue a statement that came from Ateneo President Fr. Jose Villarin that was published in the national newspapers, who said, “Together with our leaders in the Catholic Church, the Ateneo de Manila University does not support the passage of House Bill No.4244 (Responsible Parenthood), Reproductive Health and Population and Development Bill.” All I can say is…it’s about time that the Catholic Church fights back.

Mind you, while this official word did come from the CBCP President Arch. Palma, word has it that this statement was issued in response to the Vatican who wants to literally “crack the whip” so to speak. A couple of years ago, US Pres. Barrack Obama, the principal promoter of population control through abortion, same sex marriage and gays in the military were honored with a doctorate by the Catholic Notre Dame University. This caused a howl in the Catholic world and the Vatican has noticed.

Arch. Palma has a huge challenge as the shepherd of his Cebuano flock. But I admire his fierce stand on keeping the Catholic faith intact against the barrage of anti-clerics and the evil one that always seeks to destroy the Catholic Church. We Cebuanos are lucky to have Arch. Palma as our shepherd, who is not scared to separate the sheep from the goats. So watch this very interesting interview on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 p.m. with replays on MyTV channel 28 on M-W-F.

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I was still reading that news report, which was quite a revelation… that out of the eight nominees in the Judicial & Bar Council (JBC), two nominees got very poor marks in the psychological test that was given to all the nominees. The two were Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza and the other Supreme Court Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno. Before I could even gather my thoughts on this report… I got a text message that finally, Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III appointed Justice Sereno as the next Chief Justice to take over the post of the ousted CJ Corona. Wa!!?

Of course I would have thought that with that news… Justice Sereno could no longer be elevated to the highest post of the Judiciary. But even if Malacañang was still in official mourning on the death of DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo… PNoy who earlier expressed his disappointment about the JBC shortlist, suddenly decided to appoint Justice Sereno. So do we have a situation where our new Chief Justice may someday show some psychological problems? I certainly hope not!

To those who have read the Hacienda Luisita Supreme Court ruling, Justice Sereno’s name stands out as the one who totally showed her near blind fealty to the Aquino-Cojuangco Family, stating her dissenting opinion that the Aquino-Cojuangco family should be paid handsomely for holding on to the 6,000 hectare Hacienda Luisita, when they should have given it to the farmer beneficiaries in the year 1967.

An hour after getting this news report… many radio commentators was already lambasting the President for replacing CJ Corona with a Chief Justice that isn’t ashamed to show her fealty to the family of the President. Of course, the new Chief Justice issued official statements saying that she would be an “independent” Chief Justice.

To be honest, I have always thought that the President would choose Associate Justice Carpio. In my book, Department of Justice Leila de Lima was merely a sideshow. But I really thought that with her failing to pass her psychological, the post of Chief Justice would have fallen to Carpio. At this point… we can only give her the benefit of the doubt. Will the Judiciary under her leadership no longer be a co-equal and therefore independent branch of the Philippine government? We will know the answer if and when there is an attempt to reverse the ruling of the Hacienda Luisita. Abangan!

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