(Eagle News) — The Coalition for Justice on Thursday, April 12, slammed the refusal of five Supreme Court justices to inhibit from the quo warranto case against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
In a statement, the CFJ said the refusal of Associate Justices Teresita De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza and Noel Tijam to recuse themselves was a “a clear repudiation of due process, established jurisprudence and the Code of Judicial Conduct.”
“This is an outright violation of her (Sereno’s) constitutional right to due process, as well as a brazen and disdainful rejection of jurisprudence and the Code of Judicial Conduct which stated that justices and judges must inhibit if they cannot be impartial,” the CFJ said.
For this, the CFJ cited two cases–Gutierrez v Santos and Geotina v Gonzales—in which the group said the Supreme Court ruled that “due process of law requires a hearing before an impartial and disinterested tribunal, and that every litigant is entitled to nothing less than a cold neutrality of an impartial judge.”
The group also cited Section 1, Canon 3 of the Code of Judicial Independence; and Section 7(3), Article III of the Constitution.
The first, the CFJ said, mandates that judges “perform their judicial duties without favor, bias or prejudice,” and the second mandates that they be persons of “proven competence, integrity, probity and independence.”
“Laymen understand the fundamental tenets of fair play that support these principles. We expect the learned Justices of the Supreme Court to surpass our meager appreciation and apply them,” the CFJ said.
“Yet, the (five) refused. We cannot impute this to ignorance of the law—which in any case, is no excuse—but to their cavalier attitude of being above the law. This is a position we cannot tolerate,” the group added.
In asking the five justices to inhibit, Sereno said they exhibited “bias” and “animosity” toward her, and would therefore “cannot decide the quo warranto petition objectively and impartially.”
Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio said all the motions were junked for “lack of merit.”