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Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

Back to chambers

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In recent years, the Supreme Court has emerged from being a quiet branch of government that spoke only through its decisions to a controversial agency with its own share of infighting and intrigue.

The string of controversy began with the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012. Corona was tried in the Senate and was convicted and ousted for failing to declare all his bank account holdings in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth.

In his place, then President Benigno Aquino III appointed Maria Lourdes Sereno to head the Supreme Court. Sereno’s appointment caused a stir because she was a junior justice at the time, and she had bypassed other magistrates who had been at the High Court for much longer than she had.

Six years later, Sereno found herself in the same predicament. An impeachment complaint was filed against her before the House of Representatives, with some of her colleagues coming out to testify against her. Even before this progressed, however, Sereno was ousted when the Supreme Court voted in favor of a quo warranto petition that voided her appointment in the first place.

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Sereno was replaced by one of her most vocal critics in the court, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, who stayed on for less than two months before her retirement.

Meanwhile, the most senior justice, Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, was bypassed yet again this week. President Duterte picked another justice in the running, Lucas Bersamin, from among the short list submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council.

While it was clear to many and even among his colleagues that Carpio stood a fair chance at appointment, his vocal stand against the President’s inaction on the South China Sea dispute with China may have caused some questions about his loyalty.

Then again, the President has spoken, we have a new chief justice, and there are many things to do not only in the cases for the Court’s disposition but also in the administration of courts nationwide. Bersamin’s work is cut out for him, and there is no room for intrigue, or dispute. The justices need to get out of the limelight and back into chambers for the real job to get done.

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