by
PROF. ROLANDO S. DELA CRUZ
God
has spoken. President Noynoy C. Aquino appointed a new Chief Justice in the
person of Maria Lourdes Aranal Sereno.
Let
us not be consumed by the fact that she is the first woman CJ of the land; that
she is Valedictorian of her class; that she is well-educated in the Philippines and abroad; that she will serve one of the longest terms in judicial history;
and that she is one of the youngest to be appointed in the highest post of the
magistrate. More important than all these is that Sereno was the anti-thesis of
the legal bandits whom she met when she arrived in the Supreme Court. She will
continue to be that anti-thesis until the old has been relegated in the dustbin
of history. The underdog is now at the apex of an institution needing a wave of fresh justice. Truth to tell, the Corona camp always ganged up on
her. They did that when the majority (through Corona's henchmen) tried to
suppress her dissent in the GMA Travel Abroad TRO case. But she did not relent;
she did not put down her pen. She issued again another dissenting opinion that
explained how the majority tried to hide the truth from the people.
CJ
Sereno is no politico. She is a woman with simple needs and and simple life.
But she is no ordinary fighter. She knows how a petite woman could get things
done in a system dominated by bullies. She works very hard, setting an
extremely high standard for her beautiful legal mind to resolve piles and piles
of cases assigned her. She does not mingle with people who would try to
influence her judicial decisions: no partying, no lavish shopping, no
showing-off in society pages to increase her power.
She
knows what power means, but just like the great George Washington, she was not
interested in power per se. She is more interested in honoring God who is the
source of all powers. She simply accepts power as an appendage of a greater
Force. Thus, her idea of justice is one that mirrors the justice of God. No
wonder, she can never be bought: not even PNOY who, obviously, respects so much
the the intellect and the person of Sereno. Upon assumption to office, she
immediately voted against the interest of Hacienda Luisita. She was against the
majority opinion which initially favored stock options. She was for outright
distribution of the land to the landless. It was only after the appeal that the
majority set aside stock options, and Corona shamelessly tried to steal the
credit by pandering on the poor farmers. From the very start, Sereno was a
maverick in a court that lacks independence, always open to lying, always
beholden to GMA, always open to clinging on to naked power without
accountability.
It
was a lonely life for her, away from friends as well as enemies: she devotes
herself to dispensing justice without favor and without fear. She even refused
to inhibit herself in a case where the accused kept on hounding SC justices
through threats and senseless demands to whoever would get the case when
raffled in order to inhibit themselves - just so the case would drag on and on.
The previous justices who inhibited themselves simply showed cowardice. But not
Sereno. She is the epitome of courage that is without any pre-conditions -
plain, simple, natural courage that comes from a dignified and principled life
guided daily by the words of God! Truly, the mark of a person to head the
Supreme Court.
PNOY
is on the right track. He knows there is so much to reform from top to bottom
in the judiciary. But with CJ Sereno around, PNOY in four years can retire with
peace of mind and historical awareness that the CJ he appointed will do her
share of reforming our country in the area of justice. There is so much pain in
the untimely death of Jesse Robredo that burns our desire for change; but the
pain should today be washed away with an ardent hope that change is, indeed,
possible: a possibility to give flesh to the essence of political democracy,
which is genuine economic and social justice.
I
see a country devastated by corrupt people. But today, I salute the Filipino
people for producing a daughter capable of loving and serving this nation with
truth and justice. If Jose Rizal were alive today, he will not even think of
making this country a province of Spain. If he learned of Sereno's appointment,
he would not have gone to Cuba to serve the Spanish soldiers. For today, he
would know that heroism is so ordinary in this country. As ordinary as serving
well the interest of the former Indios he knew. As ordinary as being real
Filipino. And Sereno is Filipino. There is so much to be proud of in being a
Filipino.
6:37
pm
24
August 2012
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