5 SC justices hit for staying in Sereno case

MANILA, Philippines — A group supporting embattled Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno yesterday slammed the five Supreme Court justices who refused to inhibit from the ouster petition against her.

The Coalition for Justice (CFJ) denounced the five magistrates it dubbed as “Biased 5” – Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza and Noel Tijam – for denying the motions to inhibit filed by Sereno against them in the quo warranto case heard by the high court in oral arguments last Tuesday in Baguio City.

In a statement, the group accused all five justices of “clear repudiation of due process, established jurisprudence and the Code of Judicial Conduct” when they decided not to inhibit despite “obvious bias and prejudice” against the Chief Justice.

“This is an outright violation of (Sereno’s) constitutional right to due process, as well as a brazen and disdainful rejection of jurisprudence and the Code of Judicial Conduct which states that justices and judges must inhibit if they cannot be impartial,” lamented the CFJ, a multi-sectoral alliance composed of civic, faith-based and political groups that have committed to support Sereno.

The CFJ cited at least two landmark SC rulings – Gutierrez vs. Santos and Geotina vs. Gonzales – where the high court held that “due process of law requires a hearing before an impartial and disinterested tribunal, and that every litigant is entitled to nothing less than a cold neutrality of an impartial judge.”

It added that Section 1, Canon 3 of the Code of Judicial Independence mandates judges to “perform their judicial duties without favor, bias or prejudice.”

Canon 3 declares that impartiality is essential to the proper discharge of the judicial office and to the process by which the decision is made.

They also argued that Article III, Section 7(3) of the Constitution requires the members of the judiciary to be persons of “proven competence, integrity, probity and independence.”

“Laymen understand the fundamental tenets of fair play that support these principles. We expect the learned justices of the Supreme Court to surpass our meager appreciation and apply them,” CFJ stressed.

“Yet, the ‘Biased 5’ refuse. We cannot impute this to ignorance of the law – which, in any case, is no excuse – but to their cavalier attitude of being above the law. This is a position we cannot tolerate,” it added.

Lastly, the group questioned why the inhibition of the five justices was not tackled collegially by the high court.

In five separate motions she earlier filed, Sereno accused De Castro, Peralta, Bersamin, Jardeleza and Tijam of bias against her, making them unable to decide the case “objectively and impartially.”

All five magistrates readily and willingly testified against the Chief Justice in the impeachment proceeding at the House of Representatives and actively participated in the so-called “Red Monday” protest in the high court that called for her resignation.

The bias and prejudice of these justices, according to Sereno, were so extreme that their refusal to inhibit would violate her constitutional right to due process.