Who is the dictator?

BY AMADO P. MACASAET
MALAYA

‘When the Court itself violates the Constitution to protect the interest of a president who created it, democracy dies.’

THE most serious threat to a democracy is when the Supreme Court shows patent bias for a president in its rulings. It is worse than the excesses of the Executive Department because such excesses can be curbed by the Judiciary.

Carried to the extreme, the people can always rise – peacefully or in arms – against an abusive president. On the other hand, no one but no one checks the abuses of the Judiciary except itself.

But it has always been below the dignity of the magistrates to correct or reverse their rulings particularly in the present dispute where the fate of former President Gloria Arroyo is concerned.

In her time, this space consistently said that democracy and the rule of law is shamelessly trampled upon when the Executive and the Judiciary come to terms. The two branches of government came to terms in Gloria Arroyo’s time as shown by the ruling of the Court that allowed her to make an appointment during a prohibited period.

The ruling is manifest dictatorship made legal and therefore unquestionable. It is beyond the pale of law because it is the Judiciary that interprets the Constitution and the laws any way they want to.

The appointment of Chief Justice Corona, made possible by the wrong interpretation of the Constitution by his peers is a glaring act of dictatorship which nobody can question.

It just so happened that the Filipino people elected a president who recognizes the sad fact that when the Constitution is interpreted against the interest of the people and the principles of democracy, he has to act and act quickly.

President Aquino wants to destroy the doctrine that the Supreme Court is right even when it is wrong. His weapon is not the Constitution and the laws. His weapon is the people from whom he draws power having been elected by them as president.

On the other hand, the Chief Justice and his peers have no mandate from the people. If there is, it cascades from the President who was elected by the people. It is for this reason that the members of the Court should not owe loyalty to the President who appointed them, but to the people in defense of the Constitution. The members of the Court have no other duty but to defend the Charter.

When the Court itself violates the Constitution to protect the interest of a president who created it, democracy dies. Dictatorship rears its ugly head.

In the present dispute between the President and the Chief Justice, who is the dictator or who has been exercising dictatorial powers? Definitely not the President.

The sad fact here is the “usurpation” by the President of the powers of the Supreme Court, if that is a way of describing how the President Aquino saw the necessity of impeaching the Chief Justice.

That is the way Chief Justice Corona sees it. Daily, he proclaims that President Aquino, by convincing the House of Representatives to impeach him, is exercising dictatorial powers, destroys the independence of the Judiciary.

Did the Court promote its own independence when it misinterpreted the Constitution not exactly in favor of Renato Corona but for the protection of Gloria Arroyo? It should be clear to everyone that by accepting the midnight appointment as Chief Justice Mr. Corona lent himself to dictatorship of his Court, a dictatorship not open to question.

The good fortune of the Chief Justice is the fact that people will not march to the streets for his and his peers ouster. Not unless the crowd is so overwhelmingly large that they may be forced to resign or else.

But that possibility is as remote as Mr. Corona resigning instead of facing the impeachment Court.

So how can the Chief Justice accuse President Aquino of exercising dictatorial powers?

If people perceive that he has committed crimes against his people, he may be forced out by another people power.

That may not happen to the Chief Justice and his peers.

This is where the necessity of curbing the abuses of the Court becomes so urgent. The only way is to impeach the Chief Justice and if there are grounds, all the magistrates appointed by Gloria Arroyo should be impeached with him.

After that is done, the principle of check and balance will be hopefully restored.

Dictatorship of the Court would have been destroyed by impeachment of the magistrates appointed by Gloria Arroyo.

The crude way of saying it is President Aquino does not remotely suggest he is leaning towards dictatorship when he tries – by a process allowed by the Constitution – to obliterate the dictatorship of the Supreme Court.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/dec19/edmacasaet.html