Jardeleza: Sereno 'acted disloyally' to PHL in blocking my SC nomination

Supreme Court Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza on Monday hit back at Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, accusing her of "acting disloyally to the republic" for allegedly using a classified document in the country’s West Philippine Sea arbitration case as part of her move to block his nomination to the high tribunal.

At the hearing on the impeachment case against Sereno at the House of Representatives, Jardeleza told the justice committee that Sereno had tried to block his nomination to the Supreme Court because he initially refused to include a 14-paragraph “important discussion point" of Itu Aba in the memorial despite advice from the American lawyers tapped by the government to help in the case.

The paragraphs were reinserted into the document after Jardeleza was overruled by President Benigno Aquino III.

“‘Yun lang ang pinagtalunan, isama o hindi isama, may pagkaiba ng pananaw, ang isang diskarte,” said Jardeleza.

He added that Sereno used the memorandum on Itu Aba sent to the Philippine team to question his integrity before the Judicial and Bar Council and have him removed from the shortlist of nominees to the Supreme Court.

“Sa executive department lang po ito dapat, walang kinalaman ang judiciary. Bakit nakakuha siya ng kopya? Paano napunta kay Chief Justice ang kopya nito e hindi kasama ang judiciary,” he said.

“Sa pananaw ko it is the Chief Justice who acted disloyally to the republic. Bakit niya gagamitin itong top secret document, ang ginamit niya ay illegally secured document?” Jardeleza added.

Jardeleza said that Sereno mentioned twice in her comment that Itu Aba “is the largest island in the Spratlys,” which he said was contrary to the government position.

"Sinabi niya na ang Itu Aba is the largest island in the Spratlys, ito ay taliwas sa stand ng Pilipinas na ito ay rock lang," he said.

“Sino ngayon ang nag-commit ng act of treason kung ang posisyon ng gobyerno ay Itu Aba is a rock.” 

Jardeleza pointed out that a rock only has an exclusive economic zone of 12 nautical miles while an island has an EEZ of 200 nautical miles.

“Kapag idineklarang island ang Itu Aba at nagkaroon ng 200 nautical miles na EEZ e babangga ito sa 200 nautical miles ng Palawan,” he said.

Jardeleza said he still cannot understand why Sereno blocked his nomination.

"‘Wala akong maisip na away, propesyunal or personal, hanggang ngayon hindi ko maintindhan kung bakit ginagawa sa akin ang isang bagay na matindi.  Up to now i cannot understand why was that done to me,” he said.

“I can only say that talagang in my view what was done to me was inhuman. In dealing with a fellow human being, we should accord each other some measure of decency. Itong ginawa sa akin wer the most difficult two months of my life, itong ordeal,” he added.

“I believe that is not an act of a normal person.” —JST, GMA News