Associate Justice Marvic Leonen is one of the justices who voted against the quo warranto petition against former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
However, it didn’t stop Leonen from criticizing Sereno for the statements that she released during the light of the ouster moves against her.
According to chapter XI of the dissenting opinion of Justice Leonen he said that Sereno should be carefully weighed her public statements including her claim that the ouster moves against her was an attack on the entire judiciary.
“Unfortunately, in her efforts to save her tenure of public office she held as a privilege, this nuance relating to this Court’s role in the constitutional democracy may have been lost on the respondent. She may have created too much of a political narrative which elided her own accountability and backgrounded her responsibilities as a member of this Court,” Leonen said.
“Ideally, a justice must be slow to make public statements, alays careful that the facts before her may not be the entire reality. The conclusion that the initial effort to hold her to account for her acts was an attack on the entire judiciary itself should have been a judgment that should have been carefully weighed. It was unfortunate that this seemed to have created the impression that she rallied those in political movements with their own agenda, tolerating attacks on her colleagues in social and traditional media,” he added.
The associate justice also said that Sereno as the leader of the Supreme Court “should not be the first to cause public shame and humiliation of her colleagues and the institution she represents”
Leonen also pointed out that the claim of Sereno that the administration wanted her to be out of the Supreme Court because of her position was “belied” by her voting record in the court.
He listed down several administration policies which Sereno didn’t opposed, including the Lagman v. Medialdea, Padilla v. Congress and Baguilat v. Alvarez.
Photo: Supreme Court
“If true, the claim that the present status quo caused her difficulties to her position is, therefore, puzzling.” Leonen said.
However, in his Twitter account, Leonen still insisted that despite that the former Chief Justice failed their expectations, using quo warranto as the way to oust an impeachable officer is a “legal abomination”.
He also told law students to do not lose their soul and encouraged them to study.
In the vote of 8-6 Sereno has been kicked out of the Supreme Court on Monday.
