Unelected justices’ grave abuse of discretion
CJ RENE, Manong Johnny, Sonny Angara, Karen Jimeno and Adel Tamano all attended Harvard. But, to me, the most prominent Harvard alum to emerge of late has been Jeremy Lin, the prayerful—like Makatiborn football star Tim Tebow, son of missionaries—chinese-american I first read about starring in Harvard’s sacred precincts some years back. But, the NBA? Jobless some weeks ago, he was summoned, on account of injuries to others, and led the Knicks to rousing wins. When NY beat LA and Kobe, with Jeremy scoring 38, Lin-sanity became all the rage in sophisticated New York. Slight in build, 23, at 6’3", he could not be bullied, unlike in the Senate where guests are regularly pummelled and pilloried from pillar to post, igniting blood pressure concerns in more than one party.
Last Sunday the impeachment defense team did not rest — as in there is no rest for the wicked?, ha, ha—and thought it was a good day to impress the Senate, set to have a caucus the next day. Asked for the source of the defamatory imputation of bribery, “secret,” the defense said. Fair? It is living in the past, pre- Pnoy, when bribery was the norm, but GMA does not live in Malacañang anymore.
Pnoy made it clear from the start that he did not recognize the midnight appointment of Chief Justice (CJ) Rene. Impeachment is constitutional. We can all take part in the action and passion of our time, EXCEPT the elected Prez? If he calls lawmakers for support in the national interest, more power to him. This is not a criminal case like that of Hubert Webb’s, where no one can lobby with the judiciary, but CJ Rene did, to screw Hubert and spite Justice Tony Carpio. In a criminal case, moral fitness is not the test. If it is true what Ka Lauro will testify on, that would be impeachable, cruel, unethical and shameful of Rene, who should have made the contact of record and then abstained.
Prosecution bank records fake? Let’s see the genuine ones then. The existence of the dollar deposits is conceded and must be reported, on or before April 30, 2012, under R.A. Nos. 3019 (to add family expenses and taxes paid the year previous) and 6713 (SALN).
Whether 15 unelected persons are higher than hundreds of elected public officials must be resolved. Telling the elected they have abused their discretion (GAD), gravely at that. Whew! GAD, for the unelected Supreme Court ( SC) to overrule the elected, seems unacceptable as the proper institutional arrangement. According to iconic CJ Robert Concepcion GAD “is actually a product of our experience during martial law. . . .[T]he role of the judiciary during the deposed regime was marred considerably by the circumstances that in a number of cases against the government, which then had no legal defense at all, the solicitor general set up the defense of political questions and got away with it. As a consequence, certain principles concerning particularly the writ of habeas corpus, that is, the authority of courts to order the release of political detainees, and other matters related to the operation and effect of martial law failed because the government set up the defense of political question.” Francisco, Jr., 415 SCRA 44, 125 (2003). Martial law ended on February 25, 1986.
The unelected SC has veered away far from our martial law experience when the military would not honor an SC order to free a detainee, without Macoy’s OK. Today, the unelected SC may have become the most dangerous branch. Sec. de Lima did not defy a SC TRO because a condition precedent had not been met but not from the way Spokesman Midas misleads us with terminological inexactitudes in economizing with the truth.
Was it ever intended to put 15 unelected people above the elected? Rene says he will disclose his PSB dollar account. Pnoy and CJ Rene have up to April 30 to submit their 2011 SALN, now to include family expenses and taxes paid, in the new form, in line with another advocacy of mine: obey Sec. 7 of dormant R.A. No. 3019. My frustrated students could not show compliance by any civil servant. Amnesty then? We should go slow about panning R.A. No. 3019 as unconstitutional, the work of legal luminaries Turing Tolentino, Claro Recto, Tanny Tanada, Macoy.
A bank exec subpoenaed to testify by the impeachment court, and refuses, has business savvy. If he would casually testify against a valued impeached client, he could have a bank run but by holding fast, he may attract more custom or business. But, impeachable cats should be around 30, max. Why should others worry? Being compelled to testify, the bank exec would be a principal by direct participation but 88-year old Manong Johnny et al. would be principals by induction. PSB’S excuse is vagrant, with no visible means of support.
Only a few, impeached, may flee a bank, but the paper trail will remain. Lawmakers need not worry. Impeachable, they are not. PSB has 600,000 depositors. If a law removing the perceived exception is legislated, how many solons will have conflicts of interests, material for the freedom of information bill junkies? The Justices who voted for the TRO and the 14 Justices must assure us they have no local dollar account. So should any antiamendment lawmaker. So should the 14 elected Senators who bowed to the unelected.
Impeachment is political; Pnoy is the top political player. Rene now wants to disqualify Tonycarp and Mei Sereno, to keep only his clique to decide his fate. Tony should now declare credibly that he does not aspire to succeed Rene and be hailed as the new Holmes or JBL who never became CJ. Sacrifice is needed to restore the respect for the SC of our youth.
Many lawmakers have foreign currency deposits in some bank kept secret from the missus? How many solons may be affected? Now Rene grouses about Senators against him. Disqualify them as well so all who would be left are those crooning Let-me-call-youSweetheart? It is possible of course to get wealthy when in government, winning raffles, the lotto, etc. We want transparency. The secretive JBC must go, for only now are we dealing with the questions on Rene’s background which should have been in the sunlight years ago in the JBC.
I expect Pnoy to keep working for Rene’s ouster - in the national interest - in the ongoing political exercise and national inquest to determine Rene’s moral fitness to continue as CJ. We have enough without dealing with the scuttlebutt going viral on how matapobre chick- boy Rene is. Names are named. But then, this stuff of legend may only be the work of those who see themselves as among the last of the red-hot lovers but are in fact only legends in their own minds.
And I wonder when we will stop hearing “clarificatory,” which I have not been able to find in my dictionaries.
opinion@manilatimes.net