Filtered By: Topstories
News
LOOK

Protesters take coffin to SC to decry ‘death of democracy’ after Sereno ouster


Lamenting the "death of democracy" after the ouster of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, a group on Tuesday took an artificial funeral procession to the gates of the Supreme Court (SC) in a symbolic protest against the eight justices who voted to remove her from post.

An effigy of Lady Justice with a knife driven through her body lay inside a gold-colored coffin that was carried upon the shoulders of six men and deposited on the ground directly in front of the closed SC front gate as women in black veils wailed in a performance of grief.

While the corpse was fake, activist priest Robert Reyes said the performers were mourning "the sense of justice, truth and decency" that they believe "died" when the SC, voting 8-6, ousted Sereno last Friday.

Reyes said the stabbed effigy symbolizes "the deep moral, spiritual wound" that the eight justices — Noel Tijam, Teresita de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, Samuel Martires, Andres Reyes Jr. and Alexander Gesmundo — "inflicted against the Constitution and ultimately against the people."

The creative protest was among the mobilizations that sprouted following the granting of Solicitor General Jose Calida's petition for quo warranto, which sought the invalidation of Sereno's appointment as top judge over an alleged lack of integrity on the grounds of missing asset declarations.

Sereno is expected to appeal the SC's landmark decision. She has constantly maintained that impeachment is the only constitutional route to remove her, an impeachable officer, from post. —KBK, GMA News

LOADING CONTENT