Unqualified on three counts

Editorial

AS a member of the Judicial and Bar Council, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has inhibited herself from the deliberations on the next chief justice on the basis that she might be considered for the job. She holds this up as an example of delicadeza or a sense of propriety, but her recent actions have shown nothing but shameless self-promotion, naked ambition and a lust for position.

We first learned of the secretary’s interest in the position last week, when she said she would be open to becoming the next chief justice, even though nobody had yet put her name forward as a replacement for the ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona.

De Lima, who sought to conceal her ambition behind a “que sera sera” attitude, said the next chief justice should have “competence, integrity and a high sense of independence.”

On these three measures alone, we are sorry to say, De Lima has proved grossly unqualified.

It was in July 2010 when De Lima assured the families of the Maguindanao massacre victims that justice would be served on the killers of 57 people in the worst case of political violence in the nation’s history. Today, almost two years later, the trial limps forward, hampered by the government’s inability to provide protection to key witnesses, two of whom have already been killed—the latest one hacked to pieces by a chainsaw. Was this merely a sign of incompetence, or Secretary De Lima’s misplaced priorities? If De Lima were truly competent, why has the Commission on Appointments consistently refused to confirm her position?

Through much of her term, the secretary has focused instead on doing the Palace’s bidding, starting with its campaign of persecution against the former President and her perceived allies.

And was it independence that Secretary De Lima exhibited when she meekly acquiesced to President Benigno Aquino III’s decision to throw out all administrative and criminal charges against his political allies and associates in the embarrassing Luneta hostage crisis in August 2010?

Unfortunately, her record in this regard has been painfully consistent. Clearly, with the President’s blessing, this was a Justice secretary who defied the Supreme Court and refused to carry out a lawful order simply because it favored Mr. Aquino’s political rival. This was the same Justice secretary who, in a move that surely curried favor with her master in Malacañang, publicly derided the chief justice, the highest judicial officer in the land, as “a lawless tyrant.” Are we to believe that the secretary who has done legal cartwheels to advance the President’s political agenda will suddenly become independent once she becomes the chief justice? This beggars belief.

Which leaves integrity. Here we have a justice secretary who testified against the chief justice at his impeachment trial, eagerly campaigning for his position after she contributed to his ouster. This was also the same official who disrespected and defied not only the chief justice but the rest of the Supreme Court, which she now wants to lead.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago was spot on when she observed that De Lima and Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares, who has also been suggested as the next chief justice, should be disqualified because their testimony at the impeachment trial would raise doubts in the minds of the public that they were “testifying to get rid of the incumbent and replace him.”

“I’m afraid they have disqualified themselves morally from that vantage point,” the senator said.

We can only agree. If Secretary De Lima had any realdelicadeza left, she would turn down the nomination—if and when it came—on the grounds that by her own three measures, she has come up three short.