'Wary' MILF willing to give Noynoy appointee to SC a chance

While it is wary of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III's new appointee to the Supreme Court, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is willing to give associate justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno a chance to prove her independence. Jun Mantawil, head of the deactivated MILF peace panel secretariat, noted new Supreme Court associate justice Sereno in 2008 argued against a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) for the Bangsamoro people. "We cannot judge Sereno [at] this point in time; people change as situation changes and so [do] perceptions," Mantawil said on the MILF website. The MILF noted Sereno is the youngest Supreme Court magistrate after Justice Cesar Bengzon, who was 48 when appointed to the high court in 1945. Yet, it noted Sereno was a strong opponent of the MOA-AD while it was under litigation before the Supreme Court. Peace talks with the MILF hit a snag after the SC declared the MOA-AD unconstitutional. [See: MILF temporarily deactivates peace panel] At the time, Sereno was Senator Franklin Drilon’s lawyer, who argued against the constitutionality of the MOA-AD, which would have paved the way for the creation of a Bangsamoro juridical entity. The MILF also cited a human rights lawyer as saying that while Sereno is “competent" and “qualified for the job," her appointment "can be attributed to the representations of Aquino’s allies, defeated vice presidential candidate Mar Roxas and Sen. Franklin Drilon, who were reputedly anti-MOA-AD exponents." But Malacañang insisted that Sereno’s appointment shows President Aquino’s commitment to good governance. — LBG, GMANews.TV