Aquino lectures justices before elite businessmen
President Benigno Aquino 3rd again went public and further raised the ante against the Supreme Court (SC), this time describing some of its recent rulings as confusing, partisan and subjective.
In a speech on Thursday night before members and officers of the elite Makati Business Club at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City (Metro Manila), President Aquino complained that even before he became the country’s leader, he had been “puzzled, even alarmed, by the behavior of the Supreme Court.”
“Our people established our government to uphold the public good,” the President pointed out.
“And we in the executive need what every executive needs: clarity in the rules, consistency in [the SC’s] interpretations and a modicum of respect so that we can implement our plans. Therefore, what confronts me now is a central question: Can the executive fulfill its mandate given the current air of judicial uncertainty?” he asked the businessmen, who were celebrating the 30th anniversary of their club.
Mr. Aquino cited an example of such uncertainty: The SC “upheld that Dinagat was a province. They went on to establish the provincial government, from the hiring of provincial staff for the new capitol and budgets for hospitals. Then the [court] reversed itself, and decided it should remain only a constituent part of Surigao del Norte. So everything stopped. Then the Supreme Court reversed itself again, leaving everyone in limbo: Surigao del Norte is unsure if it reassumes budgetary responsibility, or whether the new provincial government has authority, resulting in funds remaining untapped, and doctors left unpaid: a paralysis of basic functions due to blurred accountabilities.”
The President also told members of the audience, whom he called “fellow executives,” that the relationship between Malacañang and the High Tribunal seemed to be “untenable.”
“When my job is to deliver services to the public . . . merely pointing the finger at a confused and confusing Supreme Court won’t do,” he said.
Mr. Aquino added that he found it difficult to correct the confusion created by the SC in the case of Dinagat Island.
“These are not abstract rules or theories: The lives and well-being of our fellow citizens are at stake. When the status is in limbo, how do we respond to the people of Dinagat as they clamor for the continued existence of their hospitals, their doctors and their medicines? Mindful as we are of our roles in society, so too are we aware that the success of the system is dependent not on one man, or one institution, but on the interplay between all sectors and institutions,” he said.
The President lectured the SC justices in absentia.
“A weak and corrupt government affects the state of the economy. We have seen so often in different countries all over the world how political instability has done nothing but harm business operations, and ultimately, economic stability. And, worst of all, these redound directly to the lives of our countrymen: in government programs and initiatives that do not, or cannot, truly help the people because of a corrupt leadership; in a lack of jobs and opportunities to take stock of their lives; and ultimately, in a poor and vulnerable Philippines.”
“Because of the system of checks and balances, there is inevitably an interplay between the branches of government. There is a built-in safeguard, a designated arbiter, when disagreements or questions arise. This arbiter, as everyone would agree, is supposed to be the Supreme Court. But this is premised on a fundamental assumption that it will be objective and non-partisan,” Mr. Aquino said.
He cited another case, this time the most recent case involving former President and now Rep. Gloria Arroyo of Pampanga province.
“When our lawyers all know, that it takes the Supreme Court ten days, normally, to attend to motions, and it decides to issue a TRO (temporary restraining order) for Mrs. Arroyo in three, who can avoid wondering what she did, to merit such speedy relief? When, furthermore, in deliberating on the TRO asked for by Mrs. Arroyo, the majority relied solely on the say-so of Mrs. Arroyo’s lawyers, when any review of the documents submitted to the court showed that she herself couldn’t make up her mind which cities she wanted to go to, how many people she wanted to bring, or what she wanted to do— see doctors or attend forums—who can avoid wondering if her main priority was to escape the arm of the law?” the President asked.
“Or, let me quote Justice Sereno: ” Why is the majority not even willing to hear the government before issuing the TRO, when, in the supervision of judiciary employees, a mere administrative officer of the Supreme Court, and not a judicial officer, may deny the right to travel? When the court itself, in granting exceptionally speedy relief to Mrs. Arroyo, set conditions for her to be able to leave— only to say, afterward, those conditions didn’t have to be met before Mrs. Arroyo left—who can avoid asking why then, did the court impose conditions it had no intention of seeing fulfilled?” he said.
Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno was appointed by Mr. Aquino.
The current SC is headed by Chief Justice Renato Corona, an appointee of Mrs. Arroyo.
The President clarified that he asked those questions “not out of a desire to undermine [the justices’] positions, not out of disrespect and malice, but to fulfill our mandate and to our bosses, the Filipino people—you included.”
Meanwhile, Palace deputy spokesman Abigail Valte also on Friday said that Mr. Aquino’s speech was not a reaction to the SC justices’ bashing of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who on Thursday was grilled for her allegedly blatant disregard of a directive of the High Tribunal in connection with the issuance of a TRO on the Justice secretary’s watch list order against Mrs. Arroyo.
Mr. Aquino said that the issue of electoral fraud had been in the national consciousness since alleged cheating orchestrated by the former president in the 2004 elections.
“We now have a singular opportunity to put closure to an issue which, the previous administration was unwilling to address. This is what brought us to this point in the first place. This time, closure can be achieved by submitting Mrs. Arroyo to the process of investigation and a fair hearing,” he said.
Mr. Aquino added that the “guarantee of the SC of a good behavior is the certainty of accountability.”
“ . . . As President, every day I face a crossroad, I know fully well the gravity of every decision I make and its consequences, and I hold myself accountable,” he said.
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