Supreme Court back to normal after Sereno ouster

Sereno’s name, photo removed from SC website

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) is back to functioning well despite the ouster of chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Acting Chief Justice and Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio yesterday assured reporters that the SC continues to perform its constitutional duties even after Sereno’s removal from the top judicial post as ordered by a majority of the justices.

“The (SC) is an institution; we are functioning normally. We’ve been deciding cases normally and we’ll be holding oral arguments normally, so we are doing our work normally,” he told reporters in a chance interview during the 117th founding anniversary celebration at the High Court.

Carpio explained that the ouster of Sereno did not impede the functions of the SC – especially in decision making – “because we’re still 14 in the SC so we have a quorum in all our cases.”

He said the SC will decide with finality on the quo warranto ruling and Sereno’s appeal “hopefully this month.”

Asked about the widespread criticisms of the Court over the Sereno ruling, Carpio believes these are not new.

“We are used to that because every big case in the SC is controversial. Both sides go to the media to project their position so we’re used to that already,” he explained.

But Carpio stressed that the decision of the Court must be respected.

“The (SC) decides and we just must follow. I belong to the minority. I lost but that’s it. I mean you win, you lose, but we are governed by the rule of the majority,” he pointed out.

“That’s how democracy works. Whether it’s correct or wrong, we just have to accept it because that’s how we can move on,” the most senior magistrate added.

‘Lost cause’

The SC has removed Sereno from the official list of incumbent justices in its website, www.sc.judiciary.gov.

Her name and photo were no longer in the space for the chief justice since last Thursday.

Saying she is a “lost cause,” President Duterte turned the tables on Sereno for criticizing him over his anti-corruption campaign.

Duterte accused Sereno of engaging in political gimmickry to get to him.

“Yes and including hers, it’s gimmickry. You ask people who are in the state of playing gimmicks with government,” the President said after the inauguration of Mactan Cebu International Airport 2 in Lapu Lapu City in Cebu last Thursday.

Asked if he is keen on transferring some officials he earlier sacked over corruption and other controversies, Duterte took a swipe at Sereno.

“But if you are thinking of recycling Sereno, it’s – you must be joking,” he said.

Duterte said he puts people in particular positions depending on their capability.

“What recycle? I place people (according) to their appropriate capacity. Now it doesn’t mean that I transfer you from one – it might be a revamp. It does not mean to say you are at fault,” he said.

“If you are a lawyer, and you have a certain style, then I place you there. If you are a combative type, if you always fight with your superior…” the President said.

“Now that she is out, she is full of adjectives and gimmickry. The  justices, they have brains. They are lawyers like you,” he said.

Duterte said he has lost respect for the former chief justice.

“I don’t believe her and I don’t respect her also.  She is full of gimmick when we are doing our jobs… they keep on criticizing us,” he said.

Duterte also lashed out at his other critics.

“What significant contribution do they have…? What? Tell me. What significant decision or Sereno or anybody to say that this just pure gimmick?” Duterte said. “What have they contributed to the betterment of the country except indulging in politics?”

Meanwhile, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) yesterday questioned the SC decision last month ousting Sereno through a quo warranto petition filed by the solicitor general.

In a statement, IBP national president Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo alleged that the SC ruling was “narrowly drawn.”

“It shows the use of the law to pursue a desired result, that is, the ouster of the chief justice. This erodes, if not demolishes, the rule of law by which all members of the bar have sworn as a condition to admission,” he stressed.

The head of the IBP reiterated their position that the chief justice could only be removed by impeachment in Congress as provided in the 1987 Constitution.

“No considerations of politics of animosity justified the refusal to recognize the constitutionally designed mechanism of impeachment and the doctrine of judicial restraint which are clearly proper,” he argued.

Fajardo revealed that they would file a motion before the SC on Monday to seek reconsideration of the ruling even after their earlier bid to intervene in the case was not granted by the high court.

Sereno has appealed the ruling and the SC has ordered Solicitor General Jose Calida to submit his comment before it rules on the case with finality.

Sereno’s camp has claimed that there was nothing illegal with the P17-million attorney’s fee she received from the arbitration case against Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (PIATCO).

Lawyer Jojo Lacanilao, one of Sereno’s spokespersons, said this yesterday as he questioned reports linking the ousted SC chief to the recent Court of Appeals (CA) decision that declared as illegal the $6-million payment to the legal team that handled the case against PIATCO before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)-International Court of Arbitration over the expropriation of Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

“CJ Sereno is not a party to the case, which is between the government and PIATCO,” he stressed in a text message. 

The lawyer argued that the ousted chief justice received the payment for her legal services “in good faith.”

“She was hired by government as lawyer and she accepted the engagement in good faith. She was one of the lawyers that helped the government win the case against PIATCO,” he pointed out.

Lacanilao issued the statement following the decision of the CA’s 11th Division that denied the government’s bid for enforcement of $6 million for the cost of arbitration proceedings before the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

The $6 million constituted 25 percent of government’s total arbitration cost of $24 million, which the ICC International Court of Arbitration ordered PIATCO to pay.

Of the total payment of $6,009,351.66, Sereno got $324,674.37 or about P17 million, court records showed. The government deducted 15 percent, leaving Sereno with $275,973.21 or about P14.5 million. – With Christina Mendez