Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno said Supreme Court Justice Francis Jardeleza, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Sandiganbayan Justice Sarah Fernandez could better explain why they went to The Hague for the oral arguments.
“I think you should ask them yourselves. I’m not there so I don’t know. They are not considered absent. In other words, they are not right now being expected to be in court, that is it. But you have to really ask them yourselves. That is a question they have to answer,” Sereno said.
Sereno was asked why the three magistrates were part of the Philippine delegation, which, with 35 members, critics found too large.
Carpio has been giving lectures on the South China Sea dispute and has actively engaged audiences in making them understand the dispute. He has also expressed belief that arbitration was one way of resolving the dispute.
Jardeleza was the solicitor general when the 4,000-page “memorial,” or case, was filed by the Philippines against China in the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Fernandez was then with the Office of the Solicitor General.