When the gods of Padre Faura fall TO TAKE A STAND

As they constitute the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, expect them also to declare Bongbong Marcos the winner in the 2016 vice-presidential elections.

“There is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine.” — John

Steinbeck, East of Eden

Eight gods of Padre Faura sank to the bottom of the muck hole, bringing down with them the new goddess, when they voted to allow the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. They are Supreme Court Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco, Teresita Leonardode Castro, Arturo Brion, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Jose Perez, and Jose Mendoza, all named to the Court by Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Estela Perlas-Bernabe. Justice Bienvenido Reyes is teetering on the brink as he declined to take a stand on the issue. Justices Bernabe and Reyes are appointees of Pres. Benigno S. C. Aquino III.

The President Arroyo- appointees to the Court crashed hard before when they upheld her right to name Renato Corona Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, in contravention to Section 15, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution which prohibits the President from making an appointment two months before the presidential elections up to June 30, which is the end of the term of the incumbent.

They sank themselves more deeply into muck when they upheld the act of the Arroyo- subservient Congress to break up the 2nd District of Camarines Sur into two to provide Diosdado Arroyo, son of then President Arroyo, a district to represent. The district formerly represented in Congress by one congressman is now represented by two whereas the two larger districts of the province are represented by only one each, in contravention of the provision of the Constitution on equal representation.

They moved swiftly to stop the impeachment proceedings against then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, shielding her indefinitely from any adverse move against her and in turn prevent any graft charges against Arroyo from prospering. But the House of Representatives, no longer under the deleterious influence of Ms. Arroyo, rebuffed the Arroyo sycophants by proceeding with the impeachment of Ms. Gutierrez, citing Section 3 (1), Article XI of the Constitution that says that the House of Representatives shall have the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment.

The same Arroyo minions acted quickly when militant party-list representatives asked the Comelec to disqualify Mikey Arroyo from representing “Ang Galing Pinoy,” the party-list of tricycle drivers and security guards in Congress. They dismissed the complaint citing that the case was outside its jurisdiction, in obvious surrender to the biddings of then President Arroyo.

Justices Velasco, De Castro, Brion, Peralta, Bersamin, Perez, and Mendoza went down further when they voted to grant bail to Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile who was accused of plunder, a nonbailable offense, for humanitarian reasons. Justice Bienvenido Reyes, Pres. Aquino- appointee to the Court joined them by concurring with the opinions of the Arroyo loyalists in the Court.

According to other justices, the decision was contrary to the rule of law. Never before was humanitarian reasons raised before the Court. Sen. Enrile did not even present his feeble health as argument for his release from detention. Days after he was set free on bail Sen. Enrile walked sprightly into the Senate session hall and immediately participated in the stressful proceedings, showing all and sundry that the justices just made up the story of Sen. Enrile’s frail health.

Justice Leonen said that the decision was “especially tailored” for Enrile. I say it was “coutouri-ered” exclusively for former President Gloria Arroyo. Note what Justice Bersamin wrote in his ponencia, “With his solid reputation in his public and his private lives, his long years of public service, and history’s judgment of him being at stake, he should be granted bail.” Only former President Gloria Arroyo among the many ailing

lolos and lolas in prisons can be described similarly.

However, the new law created by people never elected to office deferred its application to Ms. Ar--

royo as the political climate was adverse to her and her minions. But when the climate became congenial, she was set free sans the justices’ legal blather.

Ruminate no more the twisted logic of the justices. After all, they are known to twist the Constitution to suit the wishes of their benefactor.

Mr. Velasco was accused thrice of ethical misconduct when he was Court Administrator. He was said to have held lavish parties and golf tournaments sponsored by Lucio Tan- owned companies which had been previously charged with tax evasion. Just the same, President Arroyo appointed him to the Court.

Justice de Castro was chairperson of the Sandiganbayan’s special division that heard the plunder case of former President Joseph Estrada. She was appointed to the Court soon after Mr. Estrada was found guilty of plunder and sentenced to life imprisonment, leading people to believe that she convicted the former president in exchange for her appointment to the Court.

Justice Peralta, who hails from Laoag, Ilocos Norte, home province of Ferdinand Marcos, was a member of the anti-graft special court that tried Mr. Estrada. Like Justice De Castro, he was rewarded for the conviction of Mr. Estrada with an appointment to the Court.

Justice Bersamin’s appointment to the Court was endorsed by his good friend and fellow Ilocano Justice Peralta. When they were judges in the Quezon City regional trial court, their chambers were next to each other. Mr. Bersamin is known to have penned decisions favoring parties represented by Atty. Estelito Mendoza, Minister of Justice during the Marcos dictatorship.

Justice Brion was President Arroyo’s Secretary of Labor and Employment from 2006 to the time of his appointment to the Court in 2008. He drew considerable criticism for his vote involving then Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri. Mr. Neri was asked in the Senate inquiry about President Arroyo’s role in the approval of the $329-million NBN-ZTE deal. Mr. Neri declined to answer, invoking executive privilege. Justice Brion voted in favor of Mr. Neri, despite the fact he was appointed SC justice only a week before.

Justice Del Castillo was accused of plagiarism to support the arguments for denying the petition of World War II sex slaves. The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, an association of 1,290 Catholic schools, colleges and universities, said that the Supreme Court decision “abets a culture of intellectual sloth and dishonesty for plagiarism is not only a legal issue but more importantly, a moral one.”

Justice Mendoza, together with Justice Perez and the seven other Arroyo- subservient justices in the Court struck down as unconstitutional Pres. Benigno Aquino’s Executive Order creating the Truth Commission because it transgressed the equal protection clause by singling out the Arroyo administration in its investigations.

Expect the pliant justices named above and Justices Bernabe and Reyes to declare moot and academic the issue now that Marcos has been buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. As they constitute the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, expect them also to declare Bongbong Marcos the winner in the 2016 vice-presidential elections.

Theirs is not to reason why, theirs is but to comply with the wishes of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and the Marcos family.