The Philippine Supreme Court upheld the expulsion of its chief justice, the authoritarian president's highest-ranking critic, in a final ruling today that critics warned is unconstitutional and threatens judicial independence and the country's fragile democracy.
Justices voted 8-6 to uphold their May 11 decision to oust Maria Lourdes Sereno from the 15-member high court and deny her appeal, said court spokesman Theodore Te. The government's solicitor-general had asked the court to boot Sereno out for allegedly failing to file some of her past assets disclosures, a charge she denies.
President Rodrigo Duterte has 90 days to appoint a replacement.
Sereno, a 57-year-old former law professor, was to deliver a speech later today in which she was expected to question the constitutionality of her unprecedented removal, which has sparked alarm, including by a U.N. expert on the independence of lawyers and judges.
Duterte's allies said the ruling should be respected, but opponents deplored it, with one opposition group, Tindig Pilipinas, labeling the tribunal as a "supremely erroneous court" and threatening to file impeachment complaints against the justices, who voted to approve the government petition, called quo warranto.
"Our constitution mandates the Supreme Court to be the final arbiter of legal and constitutional questions. Let us respect its decision, no matter what our persuasions are," said Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez of the House of Representatives, which is dominated by Duterte's political allies.
More From This Section
Sereno's expulsion cut short a separate congressional impeachment attempt against her. She argues that the government petition to oust her violates the constitution, which stipulates that justices like her can be removed only by congressional impeachment.
Alvarez said the court ruling has "rendered moot and academic" the impeachment bid.
Sereno is a critic of Duterte, who publicly called for her removal from the country's highest court but denies he had a direct hand in her ouster.
More than half of the 23-member Senate has asked the Supreme Court to review its decision to oust Sereno, calling the ruling a "dangerous precedent" that infringed on the constitutional power of Congress to impeach senior officials.
Sereno angered Duterte after she disagreed with his efforts to take action against judges linked to illegal drugs in 2016, saying the Supreme Court should be the one to punish erring judges.
Duterte has said he had avoided getting involved in efforts to remove Sereno but got fed up.
"So I'm putting you on notice that I am now your enemy. And you have to be out of the Supreme Court," Duterte said in a speech in April, in which he said he had requested lawmakers to "go into the impeachment right away."