Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno should stick to her vow of “dignified silence” served on herself as she shows an uncanny gift of shooting herself on the foot whenever she opens her mouth before the public.
She spoke glowingly of People Power and called the two Edsa revolts that ousted Presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada as demonstrations of democracy when these were clearly extra-constitutional efforts exercised by not even the majority of the population, but by a smattering of the elite.
Edsa II that snatched the presidency from Estrada is even now considered a naked conspiracy by the elite and was indisputably an out and out coup d’etat, more than anything else.
As a former lady high court associate justice, Cecilia Palma said, Edsa II was unconstitutional and a naked display of the rule of force, while defying the rule of law.
Still, Sereno hardly measures up to Justice Palma, who knew her Constitution and knew what democracy and the rule of law are all about.
Perhaps even in 18 years, Sereno would still believe that defying the rule of law is a democratic exercise.
She herself had encouraged the Noynoy and the Justice chief to defy the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order stopping the Department of Justice from barring the travel of the Arroyo couple.
It is also said that Sereno’s personal Noynoy lobbyist, DoJ chief Leila de Lima, worked on Noynoy to appoint her (Sereno) for the SC Chief Justice post, after she was disqualified for the post by the Judicial and Bar Council for the same post. Appointment papers for another Justice was supposed to have already been signed.
Sereno’s admiration of mob rule seems only to have equaled that of Noynoy, who not only once was caught saying that he will not hesitate to summon people to the streets if things do not go his way. During the campaigns for the 2010 elections and threatened to  whip up people power if he loses the presidential race, as he claimed he would be cheated.
The SC, under then Chief Justice Hilario Davide, also did the nation a disservice by proclaiming Gloria Arroyo as president in 2001 despite the fact that there was no vacancy in the presidential office as Estrada had not resigned at all.
The shameless Davide court also later affirmed Arroyo’s presidency through a very controversial decision basing the supposed vacancy of the presidency on a diary which was not even authenticated, as they came from news clippings. Worse, that diary, which was never introduced as evidence by either party, was introduced by the court itself, and held it as “evidence” of Estrada’s “emotional and mental state” which the court then justified as Estrada having  “constructively resigned.”
Up to now the SC has not rectified those mistakes despite the other groups which joined the power grab, including the Church and even Noynoy’s mother former, President Cory Aquino, expressing regret over joining Edsa II.
Now, Sereno wants to revalidate the already discredited action of the yellow mob and that, coming from the chief magistrate who is supposedly the top guardian of the Constitution, makes it all too ominous.
Take Noynoy’s predisposition to mob rule and Sereno’s tolerance of actions outside the Constitution together and the next administrations, after Noynoy steps down and with Sereno still the SC head and it adds up to  big potential trouble if the elected presidents will not come from the circle of the yellow mob.
he cavalier attitude of Sereno is hard to reconcile with the expectations for a chief justice and is all the more the reason for her growing isolation as head of the tribunal more than the fact that Noynoy short-circuited a hallowed tradition of succession in the judiciary.
Sereno is expected to be upholding and defending the law but instead she is caught praising past actions that defied it. It is tolerable if it comes from anybody else but not the Chief Justice.
Sereno is only showing that she’s an outsider and undeserving of the  high post, in more ways than one.