While the appointment of the young and brilliant Maria Lourdes Sereno as the new chief justice may be viewed as a boost to judicial reforms, it may not necessarily mean that President Aquino will start seeing favorable decisions from the Supreme Court. On the contrary, the President may now find it more difficult to sway the high tribunal to his side.
The President must have overlooked the fact that the Supreme Court is a collegial body, and that decisions are not made solely by the Chief Justice. In fact, Sereno’s vote would only be one of 15 votes in every ruling that the tribunal would make.
While it is assumed that the Chief Justice can wield her influence over the rest of the court, in the case of Sereno, it may be much more difficult for her to enjoy this privilege, especially in the first few years of her projected 18-year tenure as the highest magistrate of the land.
Other than the four justices who had the courtesy to attend Sereno’s oath-taking ceremony in Malacanang on Saturday, including two other Aquino appointees, the rest of the justices may find it difficult to accept the fact that President Aquino had bypassed them in favor of the fourth most junior justice. Sereno was 12th in seniority. Sereno’s appointment marked the first time under the 1987 Constitution that the Chief Justice did not come from the five most senior justices.
Unless impeached or incapacitated, Sereno will serve as chief justice for a total of 18 years, way beyond the term of Aquino and extending into the terms of three more presidents after him. This means that the 13 remaining justices know that none of them will ever have the chance to become chief justice, all because the President decided to choose the youngest among them.
In this regard, there may be truth to a news report by the Manila Times that most of the justices were “devastated” by Sereno’s appointment. Eight of the justices opted to boycott the oath-taking event, including the four senior justices nominated by the Judicial and Bar Council. Those who attended the oath-taking ceremony were Justices Bienvenido Reyes and Estela Perlas-Bernabe, who like Sereno were appointed by Aquino; Martin Villarama and Mariano Del Castillo, who is facing possible impeachment and can’t afford to get into another controversy.
The report quoted some justices as questioning why Aquino appointed Sereno despite her allegedly getting a poor rating in the psychiatric exams conducted on the eight persons nominated by the JBC. Sereno was reported to have attained a rating of four, with five being the lowest rating.
The Times report added: “Based on an 11-page Psychiatric and Psychological Report submitted by a team of two psychiatrists and two psychologists to the members of the JBC, Sereno got a grade of “four” when her mental health was examined.
“Under the existing policy of the JBC, an applicant to any position in the judiciary who garnered a grade of four shall be considered “Not Recommended.” Anyone who gets a grade of five shall be deemed mentally disturbed.
“The report said that Sereno is “dramatic and emotional she appears energetic and all smiles and agreeable, but with religious preoccupation in almost all significant aspects of her life. She projects a happy mood but has depressive markers too. There is a strong tendency to make decisions based on current mood thus, outcome is highly subjective and self-righteous.”
“We don’t respect her. Alam namin kung paano siya magwala dito sa [we know how she throws tantrums in the] en banc,” another magistrate told The Times.
The Times also reported that one justice said that it could be a ploy of Malacañang to appoint their “most hated justice” so that some of them would resign and Aquino can have control of the entire high tribunal.
This disgruntled feeling will surely pervade among the justices for a long time to come, especially in the remaining years of President Aquino. And that does not augur well for a President who was apparently pissed off by recent decisions by the Supreme Court that he said was prejudiced against him.
By bypassing the justices, Aquino may have worsened this prejudice, if indeed that was the prevailing sense in the high tribunal. It must be recalled that most of the justices – in fact almost the entire judiciary — rallied behind impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona because they saw the impeachment as an affront to the constitutionally-mandated balance of power among the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government.
The appointment of Sereno, seen as a loyal ally of Aquino, and the breaking of tradition of picking from among the most senior justices in appointing a Chief Justice certainly won’t help in getting at least some of the Arroyo-appointed justices to his side.
Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno indeed faces a tough challenge ahead of her. She has to try to soothe the sour moods of the justices while trying to institute reforms in a judiciary whose image was severely damaged during the impeachment trial of Corona.
There is no doubt that the entire judiciary needs drastic reforms to solve the huge case backlog, curb corruption in the courts, and bring back the people’s trust. Chief Justice Sereno needs all the help she can get to achieve this goal, including those justices that are perceived to be enemies of the Aquino administration. It will take a great deal of both political will and statesmanship to achieve this.
Theoretically, she has 18 years to do this. But failure in the next four years would expose her to possibly the same fate as her disgraced predecessor when her benefactor no longer wields the power over the legislature.
For the sake of the nation, we can only hope she succeeds.
