Speech delivered by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno during the 2017 The Search for Outstanding Judges and Clerks of Court 26th Awarding Ceremonies on October 20, 2017 at the Manila Hotel

Thank you very much, friends. Please take your seats.

This is, indeed, a very important occasion for all of us and specially in

these times when we really need icons of excellence. So I’d like to pay

particular honors to all those whom I have always looked up to. Of course,

[retired Supreme Court Associate] Justice Bernardo Pardo. Your unswerving

devotion to your country, specially that you are Chair Emeritus [of the Society

for Judicial Excellence] and you have led so many reform programs in the

judiciary, including the MCLE (Mandatory Continuing Legal Education), I’d like

to acknowledge that now. Please let’s give a warm round of applause (applause)

to Justice Pardo. [Retired Supreme Court Associate] Justice Angelina Sandoval-

Gutierrez, of course, the pillar of the Society for Judicial Excellence. Indeed,

Justice Helen, you have taught me a lot of things. We have gone through a lot in

the Judicial and Bar Council and again I see the same stamp of excellence that

you have given to your work in the Society for Judicial Excellence. (applause)

You have my unswerving support, Justice Helen, in all your endeavors.

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I will also pay my deepest respect now and appreciation to a former

colleague in the Judicial and Bar Council, [retired Court of Appeals] Justice

Aurora Santiago-Lagman [former JBC Regular Member, Representing the

Private Sector.] Auring, we miss you a lot (applause) in the JBC. [Hon. Maria

Milagros] “Mitoy” [N. Fernan-Cayosa, JBC Regular Member Representing the

Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)] is here. She knows how much we miss

you. Of course, we also miss [Retired Supreme Court Associate] Justice

[Angelina Sandoval-] Gutierrez [JBC Regular Member Representing Retired SC

Justices] terribly.

Members of the Abad Santos-Madrigal family; Atty. Efren Goño; M[r]s.

Rafaelita Goño [Philippine Constitution Association VP for Women’s Group]

(applause); [representatives of the Madrigal family] Atty. [Rosemarie E.] “Rose”

Opis-Malasig and Atty. Antonio [R.] Malasig, please rise to be acknowledged; and

of course, GMA Network [Inc.]’s representative Atty. Jose Vener [C.] Ibarra

[GMA Network, Inc. Research, Contracts, and Litigation lawyer], kindly convey

to your principals our deep gratitude for the unwavering support you have

provided the Society’s annual awarding ceremony;

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Members of the judiciary; and I’d like to just say that I’m so happy that

I’m here with not only Justice Helen, Justice Bernie, Justice Auring, I was seated

with [Court of Appeals] Justice Manuel [M.] Barrios, [Court of Appeals] Justice

Mario [V.] Lopez, [Court of Appeals] Justice Edgardo [P.] Cruz, and [retired

Court of Appeals] Justice Myrna [Dimaraman-]Vidal. Thank you very much for

keeping us company. Of course, [Court of Appeals] Justice [Apolinario] “Paul”

[D.] Bruselas. Paul, muntik ka nang makalimutan [I almost forgot], but you

know I never forget you.

Members, officers of the IBP (Integrated Bar of the Philippines) led by its

President, I saw [Atty. Abdiel Dan Elijah S.] “Ade” Fajardo, who suddenly became

famous overnight. Please stand up to be recognized (applause) so everyone will

know who the famous Ade Fajardo is. (laughter) They don’t get the joke, ‘no?

Aaaah, naku. Atty. [Domingo Egon Q.] Cayosa, thank you, EVP (Executive Vice

President) of the IBP; Atty. Mitoy Cayosa of the JBC, the real better half of the

Cayosa couple (laughter); Atty. [Alicia Risos-]Vidal [President, Women Lawyers

Association of the Philippines and former Chair, IBP Committee on Bar

Discipline]; and the other officers of the IBP; retired and incumbent members

of the judiciary, specially of the Court of Appeals; members of the Society for

Judicial Excellence; my fellow workers in the judiciary; the fantastic hosts we

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have had this afternoon, [Retired] Court Administrator [Zenaida N.] Elepaño

and [Sandiganbayan] Justice Oscar [C.] Herrera [Jr.]; the Supreme Court Choir;

all the family, friends of the awardees. And of course, people now in this table

are now famous. You please stand up for the last time so that we can give you a

round of applause, the staff of Judge [Janet Abergos-]Samar [Metropolitan Trial

Court, Branch 32, Quezon City and recipient of this year’s Outstanding

Metropolitan Trial Court Judge Award, Don Antonio P. Madrigal Awardee].

(applause) But I think [Clerk of Court Ms. Cora] Marzan [MeTC, Branch 39,

Quezon City, and this year’s Outstanding Branch Clerk of Court (Multi-Sala,

First-Level Court) Awardee] and Atty. [Diosfa C. Toledanes-]Valencia [Regional

Trial Court, Branch 150, Makati City, and Outstanding Branch Clerk of Court

(Multi-Sala, Second-Level Court) Awardee], you also have your own contingent,

right? Are your friends here also? Can we please acknowledge the friend of Atty.

Valencia? (applause) The moral support is important. Atty. Marzan. Atty.

Marzan? (applause.) Yes, okay. Such a kind of support given us in every

occasion is always, always precious in our eyes.

And so I’d like to, again, I reiterate my commitment to support the

Society for Judicial Excellence. Even if (applause) every year, I say the same

thing. But this time, I have actually conveyed privately and several times that I

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wish the cash awards were larger. And so I think unless I get a notice of

disallowance from COA (Commission on Audit), a letter from the Society, I think

I can justify to COA why we need to increase the awards for (applause) next

year’s and the next coming years’ awards because PhP50,000, PhP30,000,

PhP25,000, maybe one blow out in Vikings will wipe that out (laughter). So

let’s stretch it a bit. Maybe it can reach six figures, ‘no? So why don’t we try?

So we are always encouraged by the fact that the Society for Judicial

Excellence, year in and year out — and this is year 26 — … underscores the

fact that there is so much faithfulness to the very important task of recognizing

excellence where it is due. And so we continue to hold successfully these

annual awards. Thanks to a group of people who pore over nominations to pick

out the most deserving public servants in the judiciary. So I really understand

fully why everyone has to get a beautiful statuette. So I hope that all those who

could not be paid for the hours that they had rendered will consider the

statuette as a sufficient reminder of the gratitude of the public, especially those

of us who understand what the awards mean as sufficient recompense.

Definitely, the request for the Society of Judicial Excellence, I don’t think you

contemplate asking for honoraria for the… (laughter) but because I know that

it is out of love that you are looking at this job of looking over the nominations

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and asking the applicants to prove that they, indeed, deserve those

nominations.

It has taken a lot of your time, especially of the Justices who are very,

very busy with their own work to go through the nominees’ documents. I’m

sure you asked around the background and the output and the achievements

of each. I’m sure that Justice Helen, who has become a famous celebrity

interviewer now — her stature in the Philippine judiciary is something like

Simon Cowell’s reputation in “America’s Got Talent.” And you have poured

yourself [into] and proven that although it was not an easy feat that you have

dedicated yourselves to, the fact that you continue to observe this tradition

which was started in 1991, you understand that this award basically inspires

and motivates the rest of us. And I can tell you, especially the two clerks of

court, you know when I heard about what you had been doing, color-tabbing

the files and making sure [of] all the entries in the electronic courts, you know a

naughty thought entered my mind: What if I issue a special designation order

pulling you into my office so you can color-tab all my files as well? It would not

be a bad idea, ‘no? (applause)

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I think we have to have this continuous cross-breeding of lessons. While

the electronic court system was conceived in the Supreme Court as something

that we need to do, your management skills that you had been applying even

when we were fully on manual mode, you applied it to the electronic court

mode and so I have something like just 180 case files in Makati? In Quezon City.

And just how many in Makati? Less than a hundred? 179. So just imagine if we

can continue repeating to the nation that because we started this conversation,

this homegrown talent, these really fantastic people being given all the tools

that they need, bringing down their caseload to just these manageable levels.

Just imagine the kind of change that we will create in the thinking of the

Filipino, right? And Ade and Egon, can I have your candid assessment now? If

this is the story that we are going to bring to the Filipino public, is this going to

be very impressive? Yes. (applause)

Of course, if we tell them that we have a marathoner for a first-level

judge who looks at her work as a marathon daily plodding of excellent work,

Judge Samar, then we can basically tell people that “Look, we have a very, very

revitalized judiciary, and this is the judiciary that everyone should look forward

to’ so that (applause) I am even saying, if we want the clerks of courts to have

an “O” or a “VS” in their SPMS (Strategic Performance Management System) for

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their Performance-Based Bonus, why don’t we have a reduction goal, ‘no? And

[Ms]. Marzan and Atty. Valencia, you can basically say, “We were able to do it,” of

course we are humble, “but we were able to do it”— that there is no reason

why all the courts in the Metropolitan Manila area, specially those who have

the e-court system already, cannot reduce the docket to that much level. You

agree that this is a goal that we can achieve? And this is something that I can

talk [to] IBP with. Because if we are going to bring the SPMS which we are now

implementing nationwide first time, I want to tell the IBP, first time we will

have a nationwide metric system, never done before. And we can have and set

this as the gold standard for what we had been saying is the gold standard for

public service that we are setting in the judiciary. People will change their

mind about the Rule of Law. People will give due process a second chance.

People will say, “Let us not give up on our institutions.” Let us stop blaming

institutions, especially institutions that are fast on the way to reforming

themselves. (applause)

And I hope that the IBP will join us in this story because Egon was there

yesterday when I had a very frank conversation with the RTC judges. And I said,

“Look, we have gone a long way already. Things that we never thought were

possible [are] possible now: continuous trial system, which sends fear still in

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the hearts of our judges and especially our prosecutors and defense lawyers

and this is being monitored very closely by the IBP, has a chance really of being

successful.”

I recognize every reform, specially of dramatic reform measures, can be

very painful. But we are not about to shirk simply because it will be a painful

moment for each of us. If the 54 pilot courts, the volunteer courts who

volunteered to go on continuous trial, can prove that there is a big chance of

success, there is absolutely no reason for any Filipino to doubt that our judges,

aided by the clerks of court, aided by the court stenographers, the process

servers, the utility workers, the legal researchers, and the court decongestion

officers (CDOs), there is one here, right? The CDOs? We can all move towards

really a very, very fast system. The only thing we need to do is to convince the

Filipinos not to give up on institutions, respect the reforms that are ongoing.

Because at the end of the day, politics will always be there, but the duty of the

judiciary is to ignore politics and to just do our job as fairly, as fast, and as

excellently as we can.

Who people will elect and who will be in political offices is not — is not

— our duty to look after. We are only going to look after the complaints that

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have been brought before us, especially when it comes to protection of

constitutional rights. But in the protection of constitutional rights and in

ensuring that there is speedy adjudication of all, we observe what are

established precedents, try to come up with the most just decision that we can

possibly do, and in our day-to-day operations, innovate so that reform and the

speed and excellence of our work [are] accurately felt by our people.

What we must all try with all our hearts to avert is the Filipinos’ seeming

desire for shortcuts now. No country can ever hope to be a modern and

respected country if it settles for shortcuts. And it is the judiciary that can

prove that we are willing to put in, day in and day out, minute after minute, the

work that it necessary to build strong stable blocks for a modern democracy —

one that will allow our country to stay united for decades and generations to

come. And so I recognize that there is an urgency at this particular time in our

history. The urgency stems from the fact that the story of good institutions that

are working is not being propagated sufficiently. It is not being understood. We

remain the most enigmatic branch of government. My role, your role,

everybody’s role in this room is basically misunderstood. They think that we

are taking advantage of our education to put one over lesser educated people,

or those who are not within the legal system. What they don’t appreciate is

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that we are actually the spine and the framework by which this society is not

tearing each other apart.

Can you just imagine a society where there is no law and where it is not

respected? Then that society is in a state of anarchy where everyone is going

on his own way, trying to seek retribution where he can and where everyone

takes revenge upon the other without the other side being heard at all. That is

not the society that we have sworn ourselves to build. As lawyers, when we

took our oath, we knew that we had to pay fealty to the Constitution and to the

laws because that is the only way for us to live peacefully. But people are

impatient. They want to give up on us. We must not let them. That is why

regardless of whatever storm I am going through, I have had only one message

for all the judges and employees: Focus on your work. Zone out the politics. I

will face whatever I need to face, but you must dedicate yourselves to your

work and I will set for you an example of fighting for truth and righteousness.

What I only ask of you is in your own specific corner of the world, you do the

same to the best of your abilities.

I don’t know how much time we have as a country to engage in this

national conversation where we can talk about the fundamental values that

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make us truly Filipino. Do we really truly value each other? Do we value human

life and dignity? Do we value giving the other side the right to speak his mind

and to be heard? Is it something fundamentally important to us that we listen

to each other? If these are the values you also hold dear, then fight for the

judiciary with all you have. Fight for its independence. Fight for the fact that we

need to protect our judges and court personnel from the pressures of politics,

from the pressures of partisan forces. We cannot afford to be slack in our

defense of constitutional rights because that is the only meaning that actually

counts for us. We are lawyers simply because we value what is just and what is

fair.

So with all my heartfelt thanks to the members of the screening

committees, to the board of judges, to the trustees, to the supporters of this

very visionary endeavor that has run for all of these 26 years. I thank you for

never giving up on this process, and I thank everyone in this room for

believing that in this place that God has given us in our particular place in the

sun, we Filipinos still value the judiciary. We value its traditions. We honor its

truth. We honor the righteousness and the justice that it seeks to provide to

every Filipino. So keep up the good work and mabuhay kayong lahat! God bless

our country! (applause)