As a first year student of law, I can’t help but notice that we live in interesting times.
For those of you who have been detached from the latest political circus that’s wracking the country, here’s what’s been happening: the President (PNoy) has been very vocal about his aversion to the Supreme Court Chief Justice (Renato Corona) — and for the longest time, the latter has been silent in light of the unrelenting tirades of the Chief Executive, but as of late, he has unleashed his own vocal arsenal as well.
The Judiciary’s main man has recently hinted, in a televised press conference conducted outside of the Supreme Court, that he is defiant, and should the antagonism continue from President Noy, he is more than prepared to fend off the bullying and defend the independence of the Judiciary.
I have two takes on this entire ruckus:
First, I perfectly empathize with the President — because every self-respecting citizen of this country knows that Chief Justice Corona was a midnight appointee of the past, shrewd President. He was appointed under dubious circumstances two days before GMA was to relinquish power, and moreover, it was the President herself who determined that it would be Corona who would be the Chief Justice.
It also needs mentioning that he was the Presidential legal counsel during her tenure, and for a couple of months, he also served the past administration as the President’s executive secretary.
If you do not notice anything fishy with this, then I don’t know what else will convince you that double-facedness and shameless political expediency exists, no — subsists, in this country.
However, even when I share Pnoy’s sentiments regarding Corona, I do not think his public tirades against the latter are called for.
For countless times during the past couple of months, he has been very vocal in calling the Chief Justice a puppet of the past government — and so consumed was he with this poison that he did not care whether the man that he maligned was sitting beside him in the Presidential table.
If I were Noy, I would have stuck to underhanded maneuverings, such as initiating impeachment proceedings against Corona, so he can accomplish two things: first, so he can pacify the insinuations of some quarters that he is out to get the Chief Justice; and second, so the separation of powers attribute of our republican democracy will have a semblance of order and tranquility.
Apparently, the President is still inept with making his political actions manifest without the possibility of a backlash. He needs to work on his finesse as a statesman, because even a nincompoop knows that image is everything when it comes to politics in this country.
Second, the executive camp has taken a disadvantageous position when it claimed that the Chief Justice should be sacked because the decisions of the state’s highest tribunal as of late were unconstitutional.
This, for me, is the biggest blunder that they could have made, because last time I checked, the test for constitutionality is still vested in the Supreme Court, and no one, not even the President, can question the mandate of the courts under the Constitution.
The mere insinuation of unconstitutionality of the Supreme Court’s latest decisions constitutes an aggression towards the judicial branch, and in effect, this translates into a minor abrasion unto the judicial bubble of immunity that the Constitution has so explicitly given to the Supreme Court.
Although I personally think the President is in the right track in ridding this country of political con artists and traitors, he needs to improve the methods that he employs in getting his message across.
He needs to be more subtle, implicit, and less vulgar — otherwise, he will perennially be frustrated that his vision for the country will not materialize: not today, not ever.
