CHIEF Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Monday lashed out at Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro for harboring resentment against her since she was appointed to head the Supreme Court in 2012.
“Although most of them said, ‘All right, we will cooperate,’ there was one justice, Justice Teresita de Castro, who said, ‘I will never forgive you for accepting the Chief Justiceship.’ ‘You should not even have applied in the first place,’” Sereno said, in a speech before a Day of Valor program organized by the Movement Against Tyranny.
De Castro was one of the five Supreme Court justices that Sereno wanted to inhibit from participating in and resolving the quo warranto petition seeking to nullify her appointment.
De Castro and four other justices had testified in the impeachment proceedings against Sereno, accusing her of bypassing colleagues in the issuance of court orders and failing to submit requirements when she applied for her post in 2012.
Sereno also said some of her colleagues had resented her for issuing dissenting opinions when she was still associate justice.
She said she tried to patch up their relationship days after her appointment as the country’s top judge, but De Castro allegedly rejected her efforts.
De Castro, who also applied for the position of chief justice in 2012, had said Sereno should not have been among the candidates for the post because she failed to submit her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.
Sereno earlier lamented that her critics are “harassing” and “bullying” her to unseat her, but had never spoken out against any Supreme Court colleague before Monday’s speech.
The Supreme Court will hold oral arguments on the quo warranto petition today (April 10).
Sereno has been on leave from her duties at the Supreme Court since March to prepare her defense for her impending impeachment trial.