The Supreme Court is moving on. 

Although it has yet to decide on Maria Lourdes Sereno’s appeal questioning her ouster last May 11, the High Court has already removed the former chief justice from its website.

The spot for the chief justice is now without a photo and a name. The last cached version of the page which still showed Sereno was Wednesday, June 6.

On Friday, June 8, the Supreme Court celebrated its 117th anniversary with Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio delivering the key address.

In an interview with reporters, Carpio said the Supreme Court and the public must now move on after the controversial ouster of Sereno.

“I belong to the minority. I lost but that’s it. I mean, you win, you lose, but we are governed by the rule of the majority. That’s how democracy works. Whether it’s correct or wrong we just have to accept it because that’s how we can move on,” Carpio said.

Court insiders said the en banc is set to vote on Sereno’s appeal on June 19. (READ: The Supreme Court post-Sereno: Better off or not?)

Carpio was among the 6 dissenters who said the quo warranto ouster is not the proper remedy to remove an impeachable official like Sereno. They were outvoted 8-6.

The decision has since sparked public uproar, with the loudest noise coming from lawyer groups.  The strong reaction now seems to have come at a cost because during the oath taking of new lawyers, Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin said “unbounded” criticism of the Court can be a ground for disbarment.

Carpio was more sober.

“We are used to that because every big case in SC is controversial. Both sides go to media to project their position. So we’re used to that already,” Carpio said.

Carpio added: “The Supreme Court is an institution. We are functioning normally. We’ve been deciding cases normally, we’ll be holding oral arguments normally, so we are doing our work normally.”

Meanwhile, Sereno said she would like to initiate a movement of sorts for judicial reform. Plans for these are not yet concrete.

When asked whether she would consider running for the Senate, Sereno just often says it is something that needs to be thought about and prayed for. – Rappler.com