Chief Justice Sereno — a surprise choice

This article was published on the news site Filipino Reporter, a content partner of GMA News Online.  When President Benigno Aquino III named his first appointee to the Supreme Court, did he imagine that his choice would become that august body’s chief justice in so short a time?

 

Probably not.

 

First, there’s a sitting chief justice who has eight or more years to go before he retires at age 70.

 

Second, no woman has ever headed the male-dominated court.

 

Third, his appointee is the most junior in the time-honored seniority rule for the court’s primus inter pares (first among equals).

 

But all three barriers were broken when President Aquino surprisingly picked Ma. Lourdes P. Sereno as the country’s 24th chief magistrate.

 

Sereno, the first female and second youngest to occupy the highest tribunal, only placed second along with two other justices in the official shortlist submitted to the President by the Judicial and Bar Council.

 

Topping the JBC list was acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and considered to succeed impeached former Chief Justice Renato Corona.

 

Carpio also was the most senior associate justice.

 

But Aquino used his constitutional prerogative of deep selection by entrusting his envisioned judicial reforms in the hands of Sereno who, barring untoward incidents, will be at the helm for the next 18 years.

 

Shortly after taking her oath before the President, she promptly directed her staff to publish her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN), an issue which doomed Corona after he failed to declare his wealth.

 

Sereno also went on to say that, under her watch, she would not be granting media interviews, as she wishes to restore the “dignity of silence” during the court’s heyday.

 

In those golden years, justices were held in awe, their written decisions followed to the hilt.

 

Sereno’s mettle will be put to a severe test in the weeks and months ahead not only with some of her disenchanted colleagues but to a public aghast with a tainted and flawed judiciary. - Filipino Reporter