NUPL STATEMENT:
CJ Sereno Should Move the People to Seek
Succor From the Court
A day after Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno
took her oath of office as the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, human
rights lawyers and law students from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers
(NUPL) reiterate the challenge for her to be independent, impartial and
pro-people.
The challenge is doubly pounded on CJ
Sereno. Also perceived as a favoured presidential
appointee, it is not unexpected for some quarters to cast doubt and to question
her judicious resolve to institute the reforms she promised to protect and
promote the Constitution and the so-called rule of law, and put life and
meaning to the basic principles of check and balances and the separation of
powers.
The new Chief Justice should have and maintain
the people’s trust. She has to face up to the immense challenge to be truly
independent and impartial and prove that she is really her own woman.
Being the one of the youngest and the first
woman to be appointed to the highest position in the country’s judicial branch,
CJ Sereno’s catapulted ascendancy to the post is both highly significant and
historical. She should seize this moment
and her quite long term of office to concretely bring genuine reforms to the
judiciary. These reforms must indispensably include those which will benefit
the ordinary folk who have less in life.
We as officers of the court shall hail the
new Chief as befits her stature and position but we shall temper our
expectations and let her decisions and actions speak for themselves.
We hope CJ Sereno will have the vision and
use her position and inimitable chance to move the people to seek succor from a
Court that should give them a fair shake and that will put the mighty and the
powerful in place.
Else, it would be an unspeakable tragedy of
its own if she squanders this defining moment.
She must be conscious that the people and history would judge her
accordingly in this light. ###
Reference: Atty. Edre U. Olalia, NUPL Secretary
General, 09175113373
