Just how long will newly-appointed Philippine Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno be able to maintain her trademark smile over the next 18 years she will be serving her post? The stresses of the job are piling on, which does not bode well for Sereno who, according to the supposed findings of a psychological evaluation allegedly leaked to the media, is described with the following words…
“[…] dramatic and emotional, she appears energetic and all smiles and agreeable, but with religious preoccupation in almost all significant aspects of her life. She projects a happy mood but has depressive markers too. There is a strong tendency to make decisions based on current mood thus, outcome is highly subjective and self-righteous.â€
“Depressive markers.”
If there is anything that could most effectively trigger a mood of depression in anyone it is being snubbed. Being snubbed is a distressing experience and we are all conditioned and trained from an early age to put up emotional defenses whenever we are slighted in that way. Unfortunately for Sereno, being subject to snubbing has become a way of life for her since she was appointed to head the High Court by President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III. The most recent incidence of this nasty form of personal affront was reported today by ABS-CBN News as one that “even junior justices” possibly consciously participated in. According to the report, Sereno found herself “by her lonesome” in Monday’s SC flag-raising ceremony…
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By far, this was the most dismal attendance by the court en banc since Sereno’s appointment, seen by many as an outspoken protest to the assumption to the highest judicial post of one of the most junior justices and regarded by some as an ‘outsider’ even during her two-year stint as Associate Justice.
With a term spanning 18 years, the second longest in the history of the high court, Sereno has doused the hopes of the 13 other sitting justices to become Chief Justice someday.
The beleaguered Sereno was, instead, forced to seek validation for her existence amongst “a small group of students from St. Scholastica Manila’s Communication Society [who] came to express their support for her and the high court”.
This, of course, does not replace validation coming from one’s peers in their chosen profession. Studies have shown that snubbing and shunning is a form of bullying that can be observed even in the social fabric of ape colonies in the wild. Often, the males of the species employ direct and aggressive methods to initimidate and assert dominance over other males, while females are more inclined to apply indirect and underhanded methods to assert social status. Snubbing and shunning falls under the latter and as such, females who are the more probable and vulnerable victims — and perpetrators — of this method of bullying presumably are the more sensitive to it.
What seems to be a concerted effort to put pressure on Sereno by her peers (allegedly, of course) possibly stems from her being perceived to be a queue-jumper owing to her being one of the most junior of the SC justices. Indeed, the ABS-CBN News report continues, “With a term spanning 18 years, the second longest in the history of the high court, Sereno has doused the hopes of the 13 other sitting justices to become Chief Justice someday.”
Another way to see it is that Sereno is merely just another ironic victim of President BS Aquino’s gross mismanagement of Malacañang’s relationship with the judiciary. The fraying of this relationship was likely to be the cumulative effects of the childish temper tantrum thown by BS Aquino over being sworn in as President by former Chief Justice Renato Corona back in 2010, the various acts of defiance against court orders issued by the SC by his Cabinet members, and the farcical impeachment of Corona in the first half of 2012.
Unfortunately for Sereno, she is the latest field commander pushed into what is starting to look like an unwinnable battle by a President who seemingly remains focused on his singular mission — to secure the family jewels of the Aquino-Cojuangco feudal clan. Assuming these are all true, BS Aquino could not have chosen a worse agent than the allegedly psychological stability-challenged Sereno. For that matter, it seems Aquino is not having such a peachy time himself carrying out these marching orders.
Recall that “elderly members of the Cojuangco clan” reportedly berated President BS Aquino over the possible loss of Hacienda Luisita to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)…
“From the time of (President Ramon) Magsasay, the hacienda land was never lost. When Martial Law came, we still did not lose our land. GMA (Gloria Arroyo) and Cory had a fight during GMA’s presidency, we Cojuangcos still did not lose our land. Now that that you (Noynoy) are president, we lose the hacienda!â€, the Tribune source quoted an elderly Cojuangco as he berated Aquino in the vernacular.
“You are the reason for our loss of the hacienda, because even the Supreme Court you had to fight with!,†the elderly Cojuangco was further quoted as telling the President.
Sereno is certainly not going through some of the best times of her life right now. Shunning is often used as a pejorative term to describe any organizationally mandated disassociation, and has acquired a connotation of abuse and relational aggression. This is due to the sometimes extreme damage caused by its disruption to normal relationships between individuals, such as friendships and family relations. Disruption of established relationships certainly causes pain, which is at least an unintended consequence of the practices described here, though it may also in many cases be an intended, coercive consequence. This pain, especially when seen as unjustly inflicted, can have secondary general psychological effects on self-worth and self-confidence, trust and trustworthiness, and can, as with other types of trauma, impair psychological function.
What happens then if this hyppothetically concerted pressure being put on Sereno yields results — results such as impaired psychological function?
As always:
Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.
[NB: Parts of this article were lifted from the Wikipedia.org article “Shunning†in a manner compliant to the terms stipulated in the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License that governs usage of content made available in this site.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The problem is that the other justices are not her PEERS.
She has nothing in common with them due to her lack of professional accomplishments. She was a junior justice not simply because she one of the last appointed: she was a junior justice because she was as close as it was possible to get to being a non-lawyer despite possessing a law degree.
Right now people are probably thinking this is all a bit of age-based discrimination. It is not. It is purely professional. You cannot appoint the least qualified person to be chief justice otherwise you end up with the same situation as exists with Aquino: the least qualified ersatz man is currently president.
Two branches of the government are now headed by people who are utterly inadequate. What does that say about the Philippines?
When President Bush appointed John Roberts as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court at age 52, he was the youngest and the least accomplished among all senior justices of the court. His highest judicial position held was Court of Appeals judge in the District of Columbia. Did the other bypassed senior US justices act like kids the way these stupid self serving Philippine justices do? NO.
These justices must remember that they are receiving taxpayers money to perform their judicial functions. Whatever their personal issues are with the new Chief Justice, the peoples business must be served first and foremost without any judicial delay. If some choose to abandon their constitutional duties, then the congress must step in and impeach the immature and corrupt.
I believe the new Chief Justice will be the eye and the prosecutor of the people against corrupt members of the Supreme Court.
Hahaha! kadiri kasi ang TUTA na yan! She doesn’t deserve any respect!!! Let her squirm some more. Slowly, all this will catch up with her psychotic mind and she won’t be able to take it anymore. As it is, she was seen at a regular judiciary function with her ARMY of bodyguards with armalites! Come on! Unless she was in a war zone, there is no reason to behave that way. Her paranoia is already surfacing. Hahaha! Abangan…
If Noy thought he could control the SC by one appointment it shoes he is really not in touch with reality. The ouster of Corona forever lost the SC to Noy. The Sc is gonna jump up and bite Noy in the ass and there is nothing he can do about it. Can he really be that stupid?
Um, yes?
“Can he really be that stupid” – Bill you really becoming redundant asking that question….. 🙂
The Justices are
violating a law by
skipping the weekly
flag ceremony.
Therefore, they must be punished. Secondly,
their boycotting the
flag ceremony because
they don’t agree with
the choice of Chief
Justice is not only unprofessional, it is also
childish. Bottomline:
these justices who skip
the weekly flag
ceremony already lose
our trust and confidence in their
ability to be the
supreme interpreters of
our laws. I suggest
somebody must now
start the process of impeaching them.
Cite the law, please.
Section 18 of
Republic Act 8491 requires
all government offices and
educational institutions to
observe the flag-raising ceremony every Monday
morning.
Supreme Court
Circular 62-2001, “all executive judges to
supervise the holding of
the flag rites in their courthouses and shall
ensure the attendance of
“all judges and court
personnel” in the rites.â€
Where is the penalty clause? Who will censure a senior associate justice you?
@clover
Is a resolution for flag ceremony purposes a law? Which specific law are they violating when they fail to attend flag ceremony? There is no such existing law. Oh yeah, you cannot be impeached for mere failure to attend flag ceremony. Your ignorance of the law and the Constitution shows. Educate yourself and please stop trolling here.
Oh you are probably the same guy who’d rather sit and eat his popcorn in the cinema and ignoring the Phil. National Anthem at the last full show.
Impeach ka dyan neknek mo.
as if losing the trust of a noytard like you is a big deal to these justices.
Fishball 2? Trying to hit quota? With that same poetic rhythm and defense for all things yellow.
Not so fast. Before punishing anybody, you have to determined first the reason for failing to attend flag raising ceremony. You only call the non-attendance a boycott after determination if there is intent to snub the ceremony to show disdain to the new CJ.
As much as we would like to find a fact in this issue, I don’t think we can. We can only speculate what is going on until an associate justice speaks up. And I doubt that I doubt that will happen unless somebody spills the beans. The court has been not an entity of speculation and attention but the public and media revels on it. The court is always in the shadows except for that controversy and the impeachment trial. Of course, I don’t think the other justice will speak because they will sound like sourgraping in public. We can speculate and hold on what they say is support for her. We can observe and conclude what likely happens in the courts. In addition, even the respondent lack of can be a statement’s like demystifying body language. It gives away even if you can’t hear or speak for it.
What, it’s illegal to give a figurative middle finger to an incompetent superior?
I think it is really more about the appointing power completely ignoring the seniority and merit rule. All this for a purely advantageous political purpose. Political insurance after all offers protection in the(18)years to come. Being an appointee of BSA, she is of course beholden to him. Such is human nature.
Ms. Sereno was really a junior justice. She lacks knowledge even on administrative matters. Her performance and experience is below that of the senior justices. These senior justices have proven ability and experience. There is also the stigma of the partially released psyche test which she failed by scoring a “4”.
Yes, it is also about human nature. When the appointing power set aside the seniority and merit rule in favor of political expediency and opportunism… it shut the doors on those qualified, and very competent senior members of the judiciary to the coveted position of Chief Justice.
I can dare say that the inequitable choice made by the appointing power caused resentment, anger, divisiveness and other emotional reactions against Ms. Sereno. These mentioned factors will trigger future reactions against the politically favored one. Setting aside merit and seniority in favor of political expediency/opportunism and obvious control over the Judiciary sets a very dangerous political precedent.
I believe experience is more credible. Appointing a CJ who has little or no experience is dangerous even if she is God fearing as she professed.
I would suggest Sereno should work in a convent as a devoted nun.
TV Tropes have much to say about that kind of smile otherwise known as Stepford Smile.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StepfordSmiler
Also here are Real Life examples read the last example at the bottom and tell me if you agree…..
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/StepfordSmiler/RealLife
benign0,
I was trying to assert before that however Sereno thinks it is “God’s will” that put her in the position of CJ, in the end she still has to deal with the politics of man.
All that “divine authority” won’t be able to help her if she can’t summon enough “earthly influence” to convince the Associate Justices around her to work with her. Like you said, she is probably the ironic victim of Malacanang’s relationship with the SC.
The earthly truth is that politics got her there, and it may very well be the thing that drives her out of there too. But then again, the impeachment sword of Damocles hangs upon the other Associate Justices should they as much as fart in a way that BS Aquino doesn’t like.
I don’t know if it is really God’s will, I don’t judge her since that is her opinion. But, even the Bible teaches seniority, that is why they appoint elders (Titus 1, 1 Timothy 3).
Or you could say it was the will of one man (and perhaps that man’s in-law) who put her in the position of CJ. 😉
This is a call for all the
people to support the
new Chief Justice by
attending the flag
ceremony. Kung ayaw
ng ibang justices umattend
tayong mga
mamamayan ang
umattend ng flag
ceremony.
Dyan naman kasi kayo magagaling, sa mob mentality
@clover
This is not the proper venue to “call for all the people to support the new Chief Justice by attending the flag ceremony.” You do know what reality is right? Don’t tell me. Let me guess. God told you to be his messenger in support of Ms. Sereno. LOL! Is that libel?
@clover again…
You ordinary citizens cannot attend the flag raising inside the Supreme Court premises for the simple reason that you are not organic personnel a.k.a. employees and/or officials of the same. Get real clover!
That’s Fishball or worse Fishball impersonator. Impervious to logic.
It’s still Fishball using the same name and the same style. Waste of space. So further comments from this guy will be deleted.
I hope I’ll not be put in hot water for sharing my thought about “clover”.
The guy actually agreed with the idea of your article (i.e. pay-war, snubbed), the only thing was he was on the side of those who sees the event as a dig against Sereno. I don’t see why he should be stopped from expressing his view.
With regard to ‘waste of space’, a contrary view or even a wrong view is not a waste of space. How can it be waste when, if the view was wrong, we’ll have the opportunity to correct it? And if we oppose it, we’ll be able to contradict it? Isn’t that the essence of why we’re all here. Why we discuss, argue and debate issue?
Waste of space is only possible of we stop reading the message and start going after the messenger.
Agree with you. Let all kinds of opinions flourish in this blog. Let readers decide who to believe or side with, at least. If reactors like clover are barred then this blog is no different from the yellow ones it despises. I think, to paraphrase someone, we rise and fall on the strength of our arguments. And that is the beauty of this blog: it provides the counterpoint to the fawning media and the pretenders.
@mangcosme It’s not so much the opposing opinion of Fishball but it’s that cheerleader tone and trying to make GRP a rallying point for the yellow. Hijacking the thread and motherhood statements with no substance. Differing opinion is part of it yes. Fishball though is trying to provoke and gives mental midget statements . Portrays BSA as GOD. Claims that BSA has cured cancer and unlocked the mystery of crop circles. It’s not even a dialogue. It’s like trying to argue with a 10 year old girl about the lack of relevancy of Justin Bieber. Good luck. Then again Fishball under truth serum will claim she was just obeying orders from Minister Ricky.
Sa totoo lang, naaawa ako kay Sereno, kaso nagpagamit siya, akala ko ba e valedictorian siya, e bakit pumayag siyang magpagamit sa isang C-average student? kundi sana siya masyadong nagmamadali (in other words, ambisyosa), kung naghintay lang ba muna siya, kumuha ng experience, kaso, wala e, yan ang mapapala…
Well guys it seems that clover is making an issue of the Monday flag ceremony at the Supreme Court. Is there lack of support for Ms. Sereno because of failure to attend? Not at first glance. Given our free democracy and human nature, there will always be people who will attend the ceremony with veiled resentment and anger. This is true to those who were bypassed in terms of merit and seniority.
Associate justices are very busy men and have valid excuses to not attend flag ceremony. Maybe clover wants to force the issue by way of making these justices attend as if they were ordinary, everyday people. When I served with the government I sometimes skipped the Monday flag ceremony not because I disliked it. It was more about pressing priority duties and responsibilities that had to be taken care of first. Does this make me less patriotic if I prioritized government duties? Nobody censured me for it.
I wonder if clover keeps tabs on BSA? Does the prez regularly attend the Monday flag ceremony at the Palace beside the river? He is also a very busy man with itineraries and very pressing duties and responsibilities. What if he is dead tired, stressed out or sleepy? Who will dare censure the President of the Republic for failing to attend flag ceremony?
Do you get the point clover? Over and out.
I don’t think that was accurate. the guy like the others, before and after him, just gave his view about the topic. It just so happened that his view was different from the rest. He may be making an issue about the topic, but aren’t we all? Just look at how the article was titled.
Nothing’s wrong with the title, in fact it was just following the insinuation of the original source. However, the title itself was inviting reaction from us defending on our point of view as to how we see or understand the event. If you think there was nothing there and the non-attendance was just an ordinary absence, fine, you can write/say your contrary view vis-a-vis the view of the writer. If on the other hand you find color in it and think and agree that it was indeed a snub or disrespect and you have strong feeling about it, I don’t see why you cannot express your thought.
I say let’s agree to disagree.
Stress in the job can trigger episodes of depression….so watch out…Chief Justice is a very stressful job…
They were all showing their “Uncle Scar” syndrome of the famed Liong King. Envious, greedy and petty. They are worried that their new chief do not have their culture of corruption.. They may not freely negotiate pending high profile cases through the backdoor for fear that they could be exposed by their chief. The very reason they were giving her the cold shoulder. The pressure was for her to give them some slacks so they can sell ‘justice on grand scale’.
Sereno gave the Aquinos and the Cojuangcos substantial amount for the settlement of the Hacienda Luisita. The land they scammed from the Filipino people. You call her honest? My Ass!
Hyden Toro, you are a typical GRP mentality.. Aquino-Cojuangco basher. The Cojuangco’s paid in full the money they borrowed from Central Bank so they can buy HL from the Spaniards.
Title goes to the Cojuangco’s over the property that they promised to subdivide later to the farmers. But subdivision to the farmers was not for free. They have to be paid for the property which they had amortized over time to the Central Bank.
Besides, even the land reform program imposes a ‘fair market value’ of the property to be paid to the hacienderos by the govt. which in turn had to be paid by the farmers. There is no honesty also in getting doleouts from the govt.
If we by your “ass,” I am certain there is no honesty in it. Its full of foul odor, I supposed. 🙂
http://jcc34.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/sc-decision-on-hacienda-luisita-a-deodorizer/
We should praise the Aquinos instead of bash them? Bad enough they unleashed some KSP seductress on the Filipino people but they also let loose a lazy, incompetent, inexperienced , unreliable, inactive , no charm pathetic cringing little milk sop on us as well. Not to serve the country but to serve their interests. We are supposed to praise Aquinos and not bash them as you say? I won’t ask you this but will ask the rest, is that libel?
Speak of the SC, and JCC will appear.
JCC is still butthurt by whatever personal issues he has had with the SC. Therefore, the enemy of his enemy is his friend.
But back to the topic, jcc. Can you back up ALL of what you just said about that “Uncle Scar syndrome” with some sort of solid evidence which REAL LAWYERS provide by second nature, hmm? Can you prove all of that intent which you just listed down?
@jcc
“They are showing their Uncle Scar syndrome of the famed Lion King. Envious, greedy and petty. They are worried that their new chief do not have their culture of corruption…”
“The pressure was for her to give some slacks so they can sell justice on grand scale…” jcc is this libel? If I were you I would not make general accusations of corruption on all of the Justices concerned. Where is your evidence?
libel? read your jurisprudence on libel please.
Overnight you become stickler for evidence Der Fuhrer when most of the people here have pilloried the Aquinos/Cojuangcos and called them all sorts of pejorative remarks. Now you howl for ‘libel.’
How i wish the overprotectionism you endowed the Supreme Court with can be enjoyed by the Cojuangcos/Aquinos.
But for a starter read, Waltzing with A Dictator by Raymond Bonner who said that the SC was lobbied by Marcos to validate his presiential decrees. Read also the tax evasion case of Lucio Tan and Danding Cojuangco’s right over the coco-levy funds. If you feel dandy over the SC members’ integrity don’t you think we need also hard evidence for that?
@Jcc…So you mean to say it’s the Spaniards who owns the Philippines? Why do the Cojuangco’s have to buy it from them?
I assume they did. Remember that in Spanish times, the Philippines was owned by the Spanish King but under the control of the Governor general. The Aquinos back then might be rich to buy some land form the government or friars but it has take a good long time before the said land was to be given to the farmers under CARP (I think)
i give you the link patriotic, just read it because it was ‘history’ that most of the lands during the spanish period were titled in the name of the spaniards, friars, jesuits and other religious orders.
@ jcc
Google the names “TALLANO” and “TAGEAN” and find out who the real and legal inheritors of the Philippines are.
@ Patriotic
Google the names “TALLANO” and “TAGEAN” and find out who the real and legal inheritors of the Philippines are.
@Jcc do you think the Aquino’s are saints and perfect beings in the Philippines? I doubt.
@jeanne so how did the Spanish own those lands? Who were these Spaniards? Did the Philippines buy back the Philippines from Spain? And the Cojuangco’s are the ones who bought the Philippines back from the Spaniards?
When the Spaniards arrived here< Miguel Lopez de Legazpi claimed our country for Spain. A good reason why our country's name right now is a derivation of King Philip's name. I really don't have nay idea on the specifics on the land but it can tacked to the Cojuanco family history. Actually, Spain sold us remember? After the Spanish_american war. If you have any further question, you night find it in a history book. If that were the case, Cojuancos and Aquino would be royalty by now.
@ jeanne
History, right or wrong have always been written by the victors. Spain wrote the history for the Filipinos, their way, their truth and their facts. What was left for the Filipinos to learn was absolute confusion about who they were as a people but one traceable clue to our distant past is the “Rice Terraces in Banaue” which is believed to be 3000 years old. A German scientist believes the Philippines came into existence 3600 years ago during the last “cyclic earth change” when the islands were believed to have risen from the Pacific ocean. I also believe that the early people of the islands were brought or have come from China.
Before the advent of colonization, the islands were called Maharlika and ruled by the Royal family of the Tallano’s and the Tagean’s between the 13th and 15th century. They were said to be the legal and rightful inheritors/owners of the islands. They are said to be related to the Sultan of Brunei. If you Google these names Tallano and Tagean you will learn Philippine history that were not written in any history books. Furthermore, you will find out how remnant Spaniards like the Ayalas, the Zobels, the Sorianos, Elizaldes etc. who were peasants from Spain that came to the country during colonization and are now the biggest landowners in the Philippines.
I saw the Chief Justice in an event I attended in Makati last week.
She’s not really that bad, and doesn’t exude an aura of someone psychologically inept at all. Even the former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban somehow spoke highly of her. I was analyzing her every movement, her facial expressions, the way she communicates with the other guests — quite normal, I’d say.
That in no way means that I’d prefer her having the CJ seat, of course, but I’d rather wait for, say, half a year and study her performance before dismissing her as a clown in a magistrate’s robes.
As for now, the only thing I don’t like about her is that she’s a freaking boring public speaker.
30+ minutes desperately trying to pay attention to her words and not to doze off… oh, the humanity.
@Jeanne…I don’t think you have enough evidence to support the Cojuangco’s buying the lands from the Spaniards. We were given our independence by the Americans. So I don’t think the Cojuangco’s bought those lands from the Spaniards. Maybe you go back again and examine closely the history.
Your link shows that the hacienda was build by a Spaniard and a close friend of the King. The Cojuancos bought the hacienda from the Spanish owners (who were the descendants of the founder) with the help of Aquino. Surely, those documents exist in the province’s documents. If the Cojuancos don’t own it, then why is the hacienda closely related to them? Answer – because they owned it and bought from the descendants of the Spanish founder.
@ jeanne
I can see how a perverted Philippine history written by Spain for the natives/Filipinos as we know it today have misled an ignorant people.
Google these names “TALLANO” and “TAGEAN” and know real Philippine history.
http://haciendaluisita.wordpress.com/about/
@clover: Why don’t you start looking into Sereno’s attendance since her appointment to the SC first, before you start attacking the other justices? She only deserves as much as she dished out, don’t you think?
@Mirror Force: Psych patients can act “normal” for a time. Look at Abnoy. You need to talk to people she works with. Ask people from SC and see them laugh nervously (for fear of being laid off by an irrational, psychotic faker). Maybe one or 2 of them will even say something “off the record.” Haha! Everyone knows about her shouting fits. Who can be expected to respect someone like that?
Now the “spokesman” Gleo Guera, who is only allowed to read or relay prepared messages from Sereno and NOT allowed to answer any clarificatory questions from media, says there is no order from Sereno for everyone to attend the flag raising ceremony. Haha! Biglang kabig???
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