Sereno says Duterte calling her enemy “betrays entire story”

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno slammed President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration that they are now enemies, saying such statement “betrays the entire story.”

It can be recalled that Sereno’s insistence that the president is behind efforts to abolish her appointment as top magistrate irked the latter. Duterte then publicly announced that Sereno is now her enemy, even expressing his desire to see Sereno out of the Supreme Court.

In response to Duterte’s recent tirade, Sereno said, “I was just asking a question that actually needed to be answered, that is, why the Solicitor General was devoting resources of the government to eject a sitting justice through a quo warranto petition?  You heard his answer. His answer betrays the entire story.”

Sereno also warned that if Solicitor General Jose Calida’s quo warranto petition succeeds, it would mean that “the entire judiciary, as well as the entire legal profession, is already destructed” and “the fight against one-man rule is already lost.”

(DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 04/ 12/18)