MANILA, FEBRUARY 12, 2012
(INQUIRER) By: Jose Ma. Montelibano - If we are to gauge
things from the advocacies that individuals and groups devote to reform of
institutions and public agencies, one would be shocked at the utter lack of
initiatives for reform in the Judiciary.
This gives the impression that there is little or no concern about the state
of affairs in this very important branch of government, presumably because there
is no cause for alarm.
In contrast, the Executive and Legislative branches of government have been
perennial targets of not only criticism but reform initiatives as well. The most
known and persistent advocacy is popularly known as "good governance."
Every election, and often in-between, the cry of the opposition, justified or
magnified, is good governance, meaning that the incumbent is unable to govern
well.
Electoral campaigns themselves allow the people to hear the criticisms and
accusations in a hyped manner, often overdoing what media does on a daily basis.
Beyond that, elections allow the people to get rid of unwanted public officials
– or install new ones who bear new hope of a better tomorrow.
Because of elections, the most criticized public officials are changed
without the need of impeachments.
What about the Judiciary?
The current impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona is not only
about the highest symbol of law and justice, it is also about to open Pandora's
Box.
The Chief Justice is not any better, or worse, than the collective Supreme
Court, the collective Court of Appeals, and the lower courts all over the land.
Despite the often rabid public statements of support being given by many judges
in the Judiciary, there is an awful silence about how ideal a model Corona is,
how so much of an example he is of propriety and probity, how inspiring his
public and private life is to citizens in search of leaders who show the best
way.
The defense of Corona is almost totally based on the claimed inability of the
prosecution to prove its case, or the superior technical abilities of the
lawyers who defend him.
They do not talk about the utter innocence of a man unjustly accused. Rather,
they allege there is no proof beyond legal doubt that violations have been
committed. By technicality, impropriety is not an impeachable offense even
though it is a fundamental requirement of any public office.
Remember the phrase, "… of good moral character… "?
Being someone of not good moral character is not about law but about
compliance to a value system that asks more from public officials before they
are even allowed to be appointed.
And Chief Justice Renato Corona was appointed. By Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as
a president whose term was ending in a matter of weeks, against all expectations
of the spirit of the law behind midnight appointments. And to think that it had
to take a bizarre interpretation of the majority of her own appointees to make a
midnight appointment not really so.
The majority of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court penned a decision
to favor not just Corona but Gloria herself.
The Supreme Court did not tell Gloria to appoint Corona; it was Gloria who
appointed Corona and asked the Supreme Court to see it her way, to see midnight
as mid-afternoon.
The first public impropriety was that of the Supreme Court when they favored
one man against one Constitutional provision.
The greater impropriety was that of Corona. He cannot claim that he inhibited
himself in the voting of whether midnight was not midnight.
It is so debasing to the intelligence of the Filipino public to make them
believe that there is no other relationship or transaction that can happen
outside of the actual voting process.
Corona accepted the unacceptable. He accepted the change of definition of the
meaning of midnight. By accepting the unacceptable, it was tantamount to
affirming the majority definition, the majority vote. Corona could have declined
and then made an honorable man of himself, a man for others.
What is he now?
He is an embattled Chief Justice who was judged not credible, not
trustworthy, by the majority of the public even before the trial – this despite
the vociferous actuation of judges and lawyers who took his side.
Corona carries the burden of association with a former president who might
yet be the third Philippine president making it to Guinness Book of Records as
among the world's greatest thieves.
He carries the burden of being seen as her way out of the cases she had
anticipated to be filed against her after her term. It is a heavy burden to
carry when he today stands accused of benefiting illegally from his position.
His SALN is spotty, suspect and exudes a bad odor. Now, he tries his best not
to allow his bank statements to be examined. Another bad move on top of a bad
association.
The impeachment and guilty verdict for Corona is not victory for me, it is
only a step towards the victory that really matters – the reform of the
Judiciary and the return to honor, finer morality and higher ethics of those who
practice inside or beside the Judiciary.
The final impeachment and removal of a Chief Justice may be sensational, but
the Pandora's Box made up of lawyers, judges and justices is the greatest
blessing to a race and a motherland.
It is not law that sets the standards of morals and ethics, it is morals and
ethics that create laws benefitting the common good.
It is not law that defines justice, it is justice that demands law to follow
and ensure it.
For too long, we have allowed the law to play calisthenics and acrobatics
with justice and fairness. In the process, the Filipino people have lost almost
all faith in lawyers, judges and justices – in the very system that is the
guarantee of their innocence and, more than that, their well-being.
I did not begin my attention and writing about the impeachment trial to
condemn Corona.
I did so hoping that the focus of public interest in it would provoke the
nobler part of the Judiciary and the legal profession to rise above the din.
I was wrong. The trial so far just points to the flaws, not of legal
arguments, but of the human beings entrusted to deliver in graphic and inspiring
ways the true spirit and sense of justice.
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/
