Supreme Court must redeem itself
Given the widespread, vehement objection to the ouster of Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno yesterday, the Supreme Court should realize its mistake and immediately take steps to reverse its despicable ruling on the quo warranto case filed against their colleague.
The following are the odious aspects of the ruling:
1. It gave due course to a petition that was prohibited under the one-year ban on quo warranto cases;
2. It violated the constitutional provision on impeachment as the means to remove members of the High Court;
3. It deprived the Senate of its Constitutional mandate to try Sereno for alleged impeachable offenses, including those cited in the quo warranto case;
4. It strikes a big blow to judicial independence, the separation of powers and system of checks and balances among the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government;
5. It makes all sitting justices and judges of the Courts constantly vulnerable to threats and political pressure from the Executive;
6. Six of the eight justices who voted against Sereno had shown manifest bias against her but refused to inhibit themselves from the case.
The justices of the Supreme Court should repair this self-inflicted attack on the institution. They should act now to prevent the rise of a strongman who has shown utter disregard for democratic governance, human rights, the rule of law and plain decency.
If it wants to, it is not too late for the Supreme Court to save itself.--Movement Against Tyranny
Teleology of faith
The world will certainly be a better place to live in if everyone at least believes that it is better for us to live our lives as if there is a God, even if only to find out later when we die that there is none than to live our lives as if there is no God and to find out later when we die that there is One.
If we believe in a God who is all good and all benevolent who commands us to love one another as we love ourselves, to forgive our enemies and even to pray for them and love them, and further to go out to the peripheries of society to extend and lend a hand with mercy to the poor and the needy, our world will indeed not only be a better place but the best planet to live in.
It may not be an easy task, but indeed it is worth doing to make life worth living and the world more peaceful.--Amay