By RENE SAGUISAG
MABINI members do not always agree, unlike when Macoy united us. We did our bit to help bring back democracy and love its sounds, noises even.
Tension could be creative, preferable to the Jacksonian unanimity of the graveyard. We love to talk, and help make our country the world’s texting capital.
Were we courteous to the Supreme Court (SC) in our time? No. I would call CJ Enrique M. (for Mamamayong) Fernando, despite his sweet and gentle treatment of me, when I appeared and argued for the first time in the SC. Ka Pepe Diokno called two days before one hearing, from Bicol, to ask me to pinch-hit, in a court I had openly disrespected.
I had never recognized that SC and openly said so, following the March 31, 1973 decision in Javellana (which ruled that there was no longer any judicial obstacle to having the 1973 Constitution enter into force. My critical posture Justice Barredo pointed out in that hearing (“you’ve always criticized us”) but ended by graciously complimenting me.
Justice Makasiar, my Consti Law teacher, would call me from time to time, to say: “‘you hit us again!” “Eh, sir, ‘yan po ang turo ninyo sa amin.” Public and open praise from CJ Fernando, in particular, was rare in; hewas said to treat non-UP alums as a lower form of animal life. But it came.
The public, including MABINI, would not have the below-zero credibility Fernando Commission probe Ninoy’s salvaging. It was dismantled, replaced by the Agrava Board. In open disrespect of the Macoy SC, we asked J. Dingdong Teehankee to swear in Prez-elect Cory and J. Vicente Abad Santos to swear in Veep-elect Doy Laurel. Then we gave many Justices concerned their walking papers following Edsa 1, the ultimate disrespect. Respect and credibility are earned.
CJ Rene Coronang Tinik is just de facto, being an excessively obvious midnight appointee. Prez Diosdado Macapagal did not recognize Caloy Garcia’s 350 midnite appointees. He was not thwarted by the SC in early 1962, only to name thousands of such appointees himself, which Macoy did not necessarily recognize, in 1965.
How many antedated appointments did we have in GMA’s waning days?
Not possible to antedate Rene’s as CJ Puno turned 70 only on May 17, 2010. So the brazen violation of the Constitution, which will rank in notoriety with Javellana.
The elected dynamic Prez sees more than unelected Justices. Leila is PNoy’s alter ego. Unless reprobated, she is the Prez speaking, and knows more than static Justices, whose only duty is to decide cases in the calm of their study, as in the days of old, when they were read, not seen or heard.
We offload scores of Pinoys daily, sans court orders, on the basis of credible info of their going to war-torn areas, or being drug mules, etc. Police power authorizes the state to do things without a court order, such as destroying a building to prevent the spread of a fire, or holding a notorious drug trafficker or a Bin Laden-deputy type or those with communicable diseases. Why not one about to be charged, maybe known to certain of the Arroyo Eight, hence the unseemly rush, sans hearing, which would have elicited the info that she was in fact fit to leave, the hospital, not the country? In heels at the NAIA. Son Mikey leaving a “badly-ailing” mother whose itinerary included attending meetings? Our little intelligence does not deserve such insults. The Arroyo Eight should have apologized after knowing the medical testifimoney in Pasay; they had been badly misled.
Too bad Ms. Horn depicted us to the world as certified sadisctic savages out to put to sleep an allegedly ailing Little Girl. We are in decay? Were the story true, she could have gone to one who can be trusted to be non-partisan when it comes to such matters that may affect our world image. Or to Representatives Lagman, Magsaysay or Suarez.
I would be equally irresponsible in asserting,.without proof, that Vicky Toh and Mike are plotting, to eliminate the Little Girl.
Crying wolf too often has its downside. Lawyer Edcel would ask for proof.
Today, the SC becomes more and more of a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma (Churchill describing Russia). Last I appeared there was in late 2006 (months prior to our devastating family tragedy); at one point, CJ Art Panganiban called Panginoong Joker and me to argue at the same time. In an earlier exchange, I told Art, “that was why, Your Honor, I had wanted you impeached.” He just smiled, gamely, to his credit. Irreverence has long been my middle name. And MABINI’s.
Cellphones are OK as long as GMA won’t throw them against the wall or staff. JoMa Sison had his family spend days with him in jail; he was accorded all basic necessities including a TV set, dailies, all the reading material he desired, ample facilities for writing including a typewriter, opportunities for undisturbed work, and daily periods for outdoor exercises under the sun. J. Abad Santos said that Sison “is a human being and human beings are social creatures. . . . [H]e should be able to talk to others, if he wants to, every day of the week so as to stimulate his mind and keep it from getting atrophied. Anything less is not only cruel but also unusual punishment.” See the Petition for Habeas Corpus of JoMa dated June 21, 1984. How would the SC now rule on mobile phones and computers? Whatever they may say in favor of the GMA may also be invoked by other detainees, including drug traffickers.
To decide where to detain GMA, just refer to the edifying Separate Opinion of Sandiganbayan Justice Ricardo Ilarde of June 9, 2001. He quoted Fr. Bernas who may be overstating his case against PNoy by likening him to Cuba-si-Yanqui-No Fidel. We may produce lawyers like those in Hitler’s time, who saluted as law anything calling itself by that name andwas printed at government’s expense. They were complicity in the genocide resulting in: 6,000,000 dead Jews.
PNoy reminds me of St. Thomas More more. Bedan AB and Ateneo law alum J. Mar del Castillo should not be impeached for staff lapse. The House cannot reverse an SC finding, for collateral damage. Si Ben Abalos naman, di likas na masama. Nabarkada lang.
What does “I” stand for? IRREVERENCE, as always,. in MABINI, INUTIL OR IRRELEVANT again in IBP? It should come out in support of J. del Castillo.
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