By Rey Panaligan
For the first time in the history of the country’s judiciary, an incumbent Chief Justice will face her colleagues in the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday next week not as head of the judiciary but as respondent in the petition that sought her disqualification and ouster.
Chief Justice-on leave Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno will attend the oral argument on April 10 in Baguio City on the quo warranto case filed against her by Solicitor General Jose C. Calida in behalf of the government.
Her colleagues in the SC had granted the oral argument sought by Calida and Sereno, herself. But the SC justices, now headed by acting Chief Justice Antonio T. Carpio, had instructed Sereno “to attend personally and answer questions from the court en banc.”
Sereno went on an indefinite leave last March 1, on proddings of her colleagues in the SC, to prepare for her impeachment cases and possible trial before the Senate as impeachment court.
