The impeachment judges and CJ Sereno
That advertisement published in the March 26, 2018, issue of the Philippine Daily Star cited two modes of removing from office magistrates of the Supreme Court. There are supporting citations.
Firstly quoted is Section 5 (1) of Article VIII of the Constitution reproduced here, as follows: The Supreme shall ‘Exercise original jurisdiction over cases affecting ambassadors, other public minister and consuls, and over petitions for certiorari, prohibition, mandamus, quo warranto and habeas corpus. The afore-quoted constitutional provision consists of two scenarios, the first of which clearly specifies the class of public officers actionable wrong against whom falls within the original jurisdiction of the High Court. The particular enumeration of parties therein is significant in the light of the doctrine of exclusivity, which simply means that those not included, for evil or for good, are excluded. The second part pertains to the so-called
High Prerogative Writs among which is the Petition For Quo Warranto which seeks to oust a public officer on the ground that the holder is bereft of any right thereto abinitio. This is significant in the light of the position of a justice of the Supreme Court. Admittedly, the published position paper is in support of a pending Verified Petition for Quo Warranto filed against now on-leave Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
At the outset, “Quo Warranto is a Writ ordering a person to show by what right he (she) exercises an office, franchise or privilege.” In the case at bar, since the incumbent justices of the Supreme Court, no less, will decide on the merit of the allegation that the appointment of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P.A. Sereno is “VOID” from the beginning, a favorable resolution thereof would appear imprudent to say the least. The fact is that the Judicial and Bar Council, which is under the supervision of the Supreme Court, under the chairmanship-ex officio, of the chief justice had earlier confirmed the fitness of the then Justice Sereno to the position of Chief Justice. Thus, an adverse judgment on the pending Quo Warranto Petition against Chief Justice Sereno might be perceived as a ridiculous contradiction. As the saying goes: You don’t cook your cake and eat it too.
Moreover, any resolution upholding the Quo Warranto Petition would be viewed as tainted with bias considering that many of our good Magistrates have appeared as resource persons before the House Committee on Justice and in the process giving unfriendly testimonies on the current impeachment initiatives against Chief Justice Sereno. Surely, it is not the intention of the framers of the 1987 Constitution to put our Justices in such unlikely situation. That is to say: to disown a colleague whose hands they had earlier raised in affirmation of her moral uprightness and intellectual competence to assume the position of Chief Justice. Having said that it must be made clear that there is absolutely no intent here to cast impropriety or ill motive on the appearance of our Supreme Court Justices before the said House Committee on Justice. That’s their judgment call.
SENIORS’ CORNER
that defined their Saturday morning cartoon fare at the same time their passiveness and cynicism can also be blamed on this couch culture that gradually replaced the viability of real world transformation in favor of pop culture utopia.
Whereas before the bone of contention was how far it was and how long it took to reach school, and then how difficult it was to do one’s homework especially if you did not have encyclopedia sets at home; older generations scoff at the convenience the young enjoy with the advent of the interwebs. Millenials don’t have a clue how tedious the process used to be just to get your needed information from the library. Nowadays, it just a click, type, and a scroll in google.
The young cannot be faulted for the technological advancements they now enjoy since these are the unstoppable consequences of human progress. But there are serious issues about the effects of these same technologies to their socialization as a generation. It could actually be true that the young adults poised to take over society in the coming years are the first generation to be reared and socialized almost completely in social media. This observation becomes the basis for the curious question: are the young people of today still classifiable as humans or have they evolved some kind of cyborg existence that is unfeeling and incapable of empathy as what social media has actually beco m e?
Watching the #marchforourlives mammoth demonstration all over the US denouncing the unbelievable laxity in their gun control laws in the wake of the Parkland shootings, where thousands upon thousands of the so-called self-centered millennials went out into the streets to register their demand for government action as a manifestation of their care for each other and others, is a heart-warming retort to this question.
In the local front, upcoming local bands such as Ben&Ben, whose unique flair in distilling the complex musical movements in OPM in the past five decades in their sound and then adding that refreshing and innocent perspective with their lifting lyrics and melodies, makes one think that the baton has been rightfully passed. As long as the struggle to be human continues, amidst the onslaught of these new technologies, the kids will be alright.
— Arnold P. Alamon