Then Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno before the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) screening candidates for the vacant chief justice post talked of bringing changes into the judiciary by being an activist head of the Supreme Court (SC) if appointed.
Her subsequent mention of being appointed through “God’s will” makes for a potentially dangerous mix for a head of the judicial branch of government.
Vice President Jejomar Binay the other day sounded off the fear of many that the SC under Sereno may evolve into a maker of law and not a mere interpreter of law as intended by the Constitution.
Earlier, Sen. Joker Arroyo had warned that Sereno may believe that she is infallible after saying that her being Chief Justice was “God’s will.” The fear of Binay and Arroyo combined translates to an anxiety over somebody who believes she is going the way of omniscience.
Sereno sees the world in a very different way which may be an advantage in terms of objectivity but the view should not transcend this world to, in effect, take her into a supernatural plane.
Filipinos have been through a lot of heads of government who believe they have been anointed by God and thus following their line of misplaced belief, they cannot be accountable to anybody but God for their actions.
There was this previous president who believed that she communicates with the Supreme Being and that her actions were infallible, which of course is reaping trouble now for her and the government now trying to prosecute her. Lately, Noynoy has also been in God-talk, perhaps also now being afflicted with the same God-vested infallibility that leads to his refusal to be accountable to the people.
This business of being chosen or anointed from the heavens should be thoroughly checked among public officials, while it does not in any way reflect a predisposition to an irregular act, it may nevertheless be ominous for the likely abuse of power.
Also there is a world of difference between being a committed public servant and an activist in government since a thin line divides between working within the bounds of the law and instituting radical reforms for those who profess activism in their line of duty.
Many have already raised the danger flag on Sereno’s seemingly iconoclastic tendencies such as Senator Arroyo who has expressed the hope that “she would not think that she has infallibility in her judicial opinions.”
Some outrightly called the claims of Sereno of her destiny having a divine guidance as “disturbing.”
Evidently her fellow justices in the high court share the same view as most of them have withheld support for the new Chief Justice that many interpret with the dwindling number of associate justices joining Sereno in the customary Monday flag-raising ceremony at the SC.
Still, Sereno seems to have a battle plan on how to undertake the judicial reforms during her long 18-year term as Chief Justice.
She said the first 10 years of her term will be devoted to instituting the reforms in the judiciary and the remaining eight years to assure that these reforms take root and allow generations after her term to benefit from these.
It would seem, however, for the moment that the reforms that Sereno seeks to institute may not gain any headway until after most of the current crop of senior justices retire and are replaced by appointees of Noynoy.
But then again, the experience of former Chief Justice Renato Corona provided a precedent for his successors in that they are not sure that a political action can be taken by an administration taking over from Noynoy in seeking her ouster.
What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander as they say.