The rule of might vs the Bill of Rights in DU30’s ‘war’

IN the beginning, Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno looked like a scared rabbit. Now she looks even more scared. Ever since President Rodrigo Duterte took his oath of office on June 30, 2016 before Associate Supreme Court Justice Bienvenido Reyes instead of the Chief Justice, the lady jurist must have spent sleepless nights wondering when the sword of Damocles would drop on her head. She openly backed the wrong horse in the last election; her recent clash with DU30 on his narcotics war has apparently made her situation worse.

A dreadful precedent has been set. In 2010, BS Aquino 3rd chose Associate Justice (now Ombudsman) Conchita Carpio Morales, instead of Chief Justice Renato Corona, to swear him in as President. Then he bribed the members of Congress a year later to impeach and remove Corona from office. In an apparent flight of whimsy, Aquino junked the seniority rule among the Justices and named Sereno in his place, a total newcomer on the Court with a non-existent record or reputation as a sage. Since before the election, many noticed her fearing she could lose her job in the same manner the late CJ Corona had lost his.