BAGUIA
I was listening to the radio when local station dyAB broadcast the call of some Supreme Court employees for Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to resign.
The speech of Erwin Ocon, president of the Supreme Court Employees Association was a study in fallacy.
He said Sereno should resign to restore peace to the judiciary.
Last time I checked, neither bench nor bar was made to be an oasis of tranquility in a world that suffers injustice.
Justice is something for which one struggles. The courts of law are sites of contention where judges and officers of the court work to make the law of rule prevail against all odds. They are not places to seek peace.
The argument that peace will return to the judiciary with the resignation of the Chief Justice is specious unless matters pertaining to her impeachment were the only ones that disturbed court employees.
They should have been so immersed in the demanding, grueling task of dispensing justice they found no time to meddle in the political intramurals involving the three branches of government.
Ocon said the Chief Justice should resign so that the judiciary can move on.
Has the impeachment case against the Chief Justice or the quo warranto petition questioning her qualification for office caused work in the judiciary to grind to a halt?
Are court employees so glued to the anti-Sereno saga they have no time to do anything else?
Is moving on an acceptable substitute for due process to which the Chief Justice is entitled by the Constitution?
Moving on is a goal for the hurt, for sufferers.
Are court employees suffering the drive against Sereno? Have they been hurt?
Have they been mocked using outdated results of a psychological examination?
The Lower House Justice Committee looked to an uninvolved psychologist to taint public perception of the Chief Justice’s sanity.
Have they been subjected to trial based on a complaint founded on hearsay? The Lower House Justice Committee entertained the claims of Lorenzo
Gadon against Sereno even after he said they were hearsay, thereby singing a different tune.
Have they been labeled crazy?
Have they been the object of the scorn of colleagues simply because they were younger? How the older associate justices seethe with envy over having been passed over in the search for a Chief Justice six years ago.
Are they under threat of job loss after asserting the rule of law and the jurisdiction of the judiciary? The Chief Executives tirades against Sereno began after she courteously reminded him that the judiciary should be left with jurisdiction over persons in his list of narco-judges that turned out to be unreliable.
If anyone needs moving on from outrageous pains, it is the Chief Justice, not the court employees.
Had you listened to the resignation call, you would have heard the Chief Justice being addressed with terms of endearment, like “most beloved.”
Do you call someone you love to give up fighting for what he believes is right?
That is a false love, a love designed to remove the discomfort you feel over the suffering of the beloved. Real love allies itself, no matter the cost, with the beloved in the fight against the evils that beset him.