QUAGMIRE
MANILA, JANUARY 15,
2012 (STANDARD) COMMENTARY By Veteran
author-journalist Cecilio T. Arillo - Many people do not know that President
Benigno Aquino III and his 188 allies in the House who collaborated to impeach
Chief Justice Renato Corona may have created a difficult or precarious legal
situation that can lead to a serious constitutional crisis or possibly a
political and social upheaval.
Why?
This is because the Constitution, hastily framed during the time of President
Aquino's mother Corazon Aquino in 1986 and under which CJ Corona was impeached,
is utterly defective.
[PHOTO - Newly elected President Noynoy Aquino in his Palace
office looking up at former President Cory Aquino's portrait] Recall
that Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile himself strongly opposed the
then-ratification of the Constitution in 1987 because of its serious
infirmities.
Specifically, the defect and the danger that it poses to the country is that
the President cannot appoint Corona's replacement if he is convicted by the
Senator-judges because no one at that point will convene the Judicial and Bar
Council (JBC), the body created by the Constitution, whose members prepare and
thoroughly screen the list of nominees to be appointed by the President for
every vacancy in the Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice.
Under its Rules, promulgated on Oct. 18, 2000 by then Chief Justice Hilario
Davide Jr., Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and the five other members,
"the Council is thus vested with a delicate function and burdened with a great
responsibility; its task of determining who meets the constitutional
requirements to merit recommendation for appointment to the Judiciary is a most
difficult and trying duty because the virtues and qualities of competence,
integrity, probity and independence are not easily determinable as they are
developed and nurtured through the years; and it is self-evident that, to be a
good judge, one must have attained sufficient mastery of the law and legal
principles, be of irreproachable character and must possess unsullied reputation
and integrity, should consider his office as a sacred public trust; and, above
all, he must be one whose loyalty to law, justice and the ideals of an
independent Judiciary is beyond doubt;" i law library
[Photo - Former President Gloria Arroyo swearing in Chief
Justice Renato Corona) Warts and all, President Arroyo in her time
appointed Mr. Corona after then retiring Chief Justice Renato Puno convened the
JBC to nominate his replacement to avoid a judicial vacuum.
Section 8, Article VIII, of the Constitution, (1) reads: "A Judicial and Bar
Council is hereby created under the supervision of the Supreme Court composed of
the Chief Justice as ex officio Chairman, the Secretary of Justice, and a
representative of Congress as ex officio members, a representative of the
Integrated Bar, a professor of law, a retired member of the Supreme Court, and a
representative of the private sector."
The present Constitution did not name a vice chairman or deputy chief justice
of the Supreme Court to convene and supervise the JBC in case the Supreme Court
Chief Justice dies, is incapacitated or is removed by impeachment.
Clearly from the foregoing, the President cannot appoint members of the High
Court without a JBC list of nominees, unlike in the 1935 Constitution where the
President can freely appoint members of the Supreme Court and all judges of
inferior courts with the consent of the Commission on Appointments. The 1973
Constitution was almost the same as the 1935 Constitution, except that there was
no Commission on Appointments at that time.
Some say the President can appoint the most senior member of the Supreme
Court as acting Chief Justice to prevent a vacuum.
The question is can President Aquino III appoint him without JBC nominees as
explicitly required by the Constitution and risk committing a culpable violation
of the Constitution?
And supposed some of the justices or lower court judges sympathize with Mr.
Corona and resign en mass?
Bear in mind that no democratic or republican state, like the Philippines,
can survive without a functioning judicial system. Surely, no businessmen or
foreign investors will put his money in a country under a mob rule.
At that point, whether one likes it or not, the military and the
police will take over the government to protect the State from disintegrating.
Or the President may declare Martial Law. But the question is can President
Aquino III command the loyalty and obedience of the armed services, knowing that
he himself was part of the problem?
In Section 8 (2), Article VIII, of the Constitution, the regular Members of
the Council shall be appointed by the President for a term of four years with
the consent of the Commission on Appointments. Of the Members first appointed,
the representative of the Integrated Bar shall serve for four years, the
professor of law for three years, the retired justice for two years, and the
representative of the private sector for one year.
The Council, in Section 8 (5), shall have the principal function of
recommending appointees to the Judiciary. It may exercise such other functions
and duties as the Supreme Court may assign to it.
Section 9, Article VIII, of the Constitution, clearly states that "The
Members of the Supreme Court and the judges of lower courts shall be appointed
by the President from a list of at least three nominees prepared by the Judicial
and Bar Council for every vacancy. Such appointments need no confirmation."
It is not too late yet for the prosecution and other angry and
confrontational people to rationalize once more for the sake of the country
before the Senate begins in earnest the trial of CJ Corona who is already being
unfairly subjected to prejudgment of guilt, a dangerous situation that is
already causing anxiety, tension and disunity among the people.
The best solution is to withdraw the articles of impeachment, amend the
Constitution and let the President and his 188 allies in the House put the
interest of the country at heart by adopting a consensual, rather an adversarial
and confrontational, approach to deal with CJ Corona and the country's more
pressing political, social, economics and national security problems.
In fact, this is the position of some members of the Catholic Bishop
Conference of the Philippines and other secular groups when they attempted to
mediate the conflict between CJ Corona and President Aquino. Unfortunately, the
latter spurned them.
[Photo - (L-R) Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, former
President Fidel Ramos and President-elect Noynoy Aquino: Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales administer the
oath-taking of President-elect Noynoy Aquino during his inauguration as the
fifteenth President of the Philippines, at Quirino Grandstand on June 30, 2010
in Manila, Philippines. Aquino won the 2010 Presidential Election and was
proclaimed winner and President-elect on June 9, succeeding outgoing President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. (June 29, 2010 - Photo by Dondi
Tawatao/Getty Images AsiaPac)]
Isn't a good, wise move for a President, who's very much aware of his oath of
office ("…preserve and defend its Constitution, execute its laws and do justice
to every man…"), to cohere with the two other branches of the government, unify
the nation and put the plunderers, corruptors and other scoundrels in jail under
a rule of law with less publicity and fanfare?
About the writer:
CECILIO T. ARILLO
Veteran author-journalist
Cecilio T. Arillo, PhD, has just published a new book, "A Country Imperiled:
Tragic Lessons of a Distorted History (IAME, 2011)," which presents a bold and
factual perspective on the presidency of deposed leader Ferdinand Marcos, his
wife Imelda Romualdez Marcos, the martial law period, the Edsa Revolt, the
regime of President Cory Aquino and the subsequent administrations until that of
Cory's son, President Benigno Aquino III.
Like his previous books, "Breakaway (CTA Publishing, 1986)" and "Greed and
Betrayal (CTA, 2000)," Arillo presents a factual recounting of history in "A
Country Imperiled.." even as it breaks accepted norms on historical
personalities and the traditional textbook view on the nation's past and
present. "A Country Imperiled" follows the same tradition of factual narrations
of political history as it seeks to objectively demystify the Aquino couple,
former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. who is hailed as a martyr, and Cory
Aquino as an icon of democracy.
Some of Arillo's observations especially on Cory, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
and President Aquino curiously find parallels in the controversial Wikileaks
supposedly coming from former Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney. He
also dissects nasty allegations leveled at the Marcos couple through a fair
recounting of their actions. These are based on declassified government
documents and biased reporting of events.
Arillo says the book sets the record straight for the benefit of the new
generation of Filipinos who may have to rely on historical accounts to
appreciate the characters of the nation's previous leaders. He adds that what
prompted him to write the book were what came out mostly as distortions of
historical events and the glorification of people who are supposed to be made to
account for their sins of omission and commission.
Arillo, in the post-Marcos years, looks at the trail of plunders,
corruptions, economic deprivation, gruesome human rights violations,
insurgencies, hundreds of killings involving journalists and serious problems of
brownouts, flooding and horrendous traffic.
He says the book also seeks to break the common notion that corruption is
the root of all evils in the country. "While corruption is a valid issue, the
mendicancy of the country and wrong economic policies were caused mostly by
predation that the country's leaders have allowed to persist," he writes in the
foreword.
In his incisive review of the ills of the economy, Arillo puts on the
spotlight the collusion between the Cory Aquino regime and the mostly
Makati-based big businesses and "corporate predators that thrive on political
patronage with the Aquinos."
The book also exposes the role of the Church in the downfall of Marcos and
the restoration of the old oligarchy. It also examines the vindictiveness of the
Cory Aquino administration that was exemplified by the targeting for demolition
of the efficiently functioning ministries, the Ministry of Energy and the
Ministry of Human Settlements, particularly its Technological Resource Center
whose assets were dissipated and later abolished on the mere argument that these
agencies were creations of Marcos.
Arillo's deconstruction of events is an interesting guide for legal
researchers as well as students out to write a factual recollection of the
country's historical events. The book is now available for worldwide
distribution at Amazon's Kindle and CreateSpace. (THE
DAILY INQUIRER)
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved
PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
phno-digest@yahoogroups.com
phno-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
