Sereno: Admin ‘enemies’ deemed ‘fair game for harassment’

As she battles at least two ouster attempts, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Wednesday took the stage to describe the state of the nation as one where "enemies" of the "dominant order" are made targets of harassment.

Without naming names, the embattled top judge, speaking before a crowd of students and nuns at St. Scholastica's College in Manila, also touched on "fake news" and the "denigration of women" under the current administration.

"The current state of the nation is one where perceived enemies of the dominant order are considered fair game for harassment, intimidation, and persecution..." she said in a speech at a forum in celebration of Women's Day.

"...where shortcuts are preferred over adherence to constitutional guarantees of human rights, including denial of due process; where fake news and propaganda abound to deceive and manipulate, rather than enlighten and educate, the public; and where coarseness, including the denigration of women, rather than civility, mark the language of the podium."

President Rodrigo Duterte recently has earned the ire of women's groups for his off-the-cuff comments against women, most recent of which was his remark that female rebel fighters ought to be shot in the vagina. 

Sereno then urged her audience not to be "passive spectators" to what she said was happening to the country.

In between quoting portions of the preamble of the Constitution, Sereno said the "government has the positive duty to embody the highest level of nobility, good, wisdom, righteousness in the Filipino."

"And this qualitative standard is the norm, nothing else will do," she said.

Truth, she said, is "not a tool ... to be dispensed with as a matter of expediency" or "twisted."

She was quiet on matters concerning her impeachment, or her questioned hold to the office of chief justice, unlike in an earlier appearance in Baguio City where she addressed her detractors and again called for a Senate trial.

Sereno is facing an impeachment bid at the House of Representatives. She has said her indefinite leave of absence was to prepare for her legal defense for the looming impeachment trial at the Senate.

In the Supreme Court, she has been asked to comment on a petition for quo warranto that seeks her removal from her post over alleged incomplete submission of her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth.

Sereno declined to answer questions from the media after the event. — RSJ/KBK, GMA News