‘Bias’ prompts Sereno to ask 4 SC justices to inhibit from ouster plea

Concerns of "bias" and "animosity" prompted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to ask four of her colleagues in the Supreme Court (SC) to inhibit from hearing and deciding the petition that wants to boot her out of her post.

Sereno on Wednesday filed four separate motions for the inhibition of Associate Justices Francis Jardeleza, Diosdado Peralta, Noel Tijam, and Lucas Bersamin from the petition for quo warranto filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida.

Her team is scheduled to file a fifth one on Thursday. It was not immediately clear which magistrate would be named in the fifth motion.

Sereno said she "has reasonable grounds to believe" that Jardeleza, Peralta, and Bersamin "manifested," "professed," or "exhibited" bias when they testified at the House justice committee's hearings in relation with impeachment charges against her.

Sereno also wants Tijam out of the case because he was quoted in a news article as saying that Sereno would be "liable for culpable violation of the Constitution" if she kept "ignoring" the impeachment process.

Jardeleza's testimony at the House panel's hearing was related to Sereno's alleged "manipulation" of the shortlist of the Judicial and Bar Council against his favor. This, he had hinted, was an act of treason, because Sereno had used a supposedly classified document to block his nomination.

"There is reasonable basis to conclude from Justice Jardeleza's testimony that he harbored ill feelings towards the Chief Justice as a consequence of the latter's challenge to his integrity during the nomination process for the Associate Justice position (vice Hon. Justice Roberto Abad) in 2014," Sereno's motion stated.

Meanwhile, Sereno is concerned with Peralta's supposed bias against her when he expressed at a House panel hearing that she should have been disqualified from the chief justice nomination because of her alleged failure to submit to the JBC her statements of assets for the years she taught in the University of the Philippines.

"Justice Peralta's apparent bias seems to have arisen from his belief that it was the Chief Justice who caused the exclusion of his wife, Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justice Fernanda Lampas Peralta, from the list of applicants for the position of CA Presiding Justice," the motion said.

Sereno also wants Peralta to inhibit because he was the acting ex-officio chair of the JBC when she was nominated for the top judge post, therefore giving him "personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts" on the proceedings.

Tijam, for his part, was supposedly quoted in a Manila Times report as saying: "If Chief Justice Sereno continues to ignore and continues to refuse to participate in the impeachment process, ergo, she is clearly liable for culpable violation of the Constitution."

Sereno also raised that Tijam was among the justices and court employees who "wore a touch of red" on March 12, a "Red Monday" protest at the SC. It was the day Sereno was urged to resign by groups of judges and court employees.

Lastly, Bersamin allegedly showed bias against Sereno when he said at a House hearing that the high tribunal could not function if one is a "dictator," apparently referring to the chief justice.

For Sereno, Bersamin's comments were "not mere innocuous remarks but are expressions of what may be considered as Justice Bersamin's personal animosity towards her.

Bersamin, too, wore a hint of red at the "Red Monday" protest, said the top magistrate.

The non-inhibition of the four justices would violate Sereno's constitutional right to due process, her motions stated. — MDM, GMA News