By REY PANALIGAN
Embattled Chief Justice-on leave Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno intends to hang on to her post as head of the judiciary despite continued calls for her resignation by judges and court employees.
Though she deems resignation the easier option, she stressed it is her duty to do the “right thing” and fight to the end the impeachment complaints against her.
During yesterday’s flag-raising ceremony at the Supreme Court (SC), several groups wearing red as led by Erwin Ocson, president of the SC Employees Association (SCEA), made explicit their call for Sereno’s resignation.
Reading a statement in behalf of the leaders of the Philippine Judges Association (PJA), SC Assembly of Lawyer Employees (SCALE), the Philippine Association of Court Employees (PACE), and the Sandiganbayan Employees Association (SEA), Ocson said, “The pending impeachment proceedings in recent months have put the entire judiciary in disrepute, thereby affecting the honor and integrity of its justices, judges, officials, and employees…. We call on you, for the sake of our people, to step down from your position as chief justice.”
In a speech at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City after the SC flag-raising ceremony, Sereno said she will pursue her fight for “judicial independence” and against extralegal adventurism that “seeks to bend the rules when convenient.”
“Allowing the weight of the office of the Chief Justice to be immediately lifted off my shoulders, freeing me to pursue many things ordinary citizens do, it will end the unrelenting attacks against my person, my staff, and other court officials. But I do not make choices in life on the basis of what is the easier option; but what is the right thing to do. And without the slightest doubt, the right thing to do is to fight this impeachment to the end.”
Sereno pointed out resigning her post “will only serve to erode the independence of the Supreme Court and embolden those who demand a subservient judiciary.”
“To do so would invite the kind of extra-constitutional adventurism that treats legal rights and procedures as mere inconveniences that should be set aside when it suits the powers that be,” she added.
