‘The negative rating of the Chief Justice validates the people’s desire to support the House of Representatives and President Aquino to convict Mr. Corona in the impeachment trial.’
THE satisfaction rating of Chief Justice Renato C. Corona has never been positive since he took office before the national elections of 2010. The latest survey done by the SWS from Dec. 3 to 7, last year shows Mr. Corona has a minus 14 satisfaction rating while the rating of the Supreme Court is relatively low but not minus or negative.
Mahar Mangahas, president of SWS, says that the negative rating of Mr. Corona simply means people do not equate the High Tribunal with its head. Maybe he is right.
The mistake is including Mr. Corona and the Supreme Court in the survey. The wonder of it all is why SWS conducted one rating for the Chief Justice and another for the Supreme Court or his peers.
Clearly, SWS wanted to know whether or not people are satisfied with the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice. Yet, it concludes that the respondents in the survey seem to convey the feeling that the Court is not the Chief Justice.
This is not exactly correct. The Court should not be treated separately from its head. More so in the present Court where there is what is rightly or wrongly perceived as the “magic nine” headed by the Chief Justice himself.
It is widely suspected that this group is beholden – for unacceptable reasons – to Gloria Arroyo. Therefore, saying that the people do not equate the Chief Justice with the Supreme Court can well mean that the respondents in the survey did not exactly know that the High Tribunal is controlled by former President Arroyo through the Chief Justice who is now facing an impeachment trial.
Theoretically, the Supreme Court is not in the business of making itself popular. Its only business is defending the Constitution. In this sense, more harm than good is done when a satisfaction survey is made separately for the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice.
Even if the survey had shown that the Chief Justice and his Court smelling like roses the survey has absolutely nothing to do with how the Court and its head should function.
The Head Magistrate went out of his way to gain acceptability. He appeared on television and accepted public speaking engagements like no Chief Justice or any magistrate ever did before.
Yet his satisfaction rating continues to be negative. This is a manifestation of a feeling among the respondents in the survey that the head of the Court must be convicted in the impeachment trial for a variety of reasons.
First, the negative rating indicates that people abhor his midnight appointment. The respondents in the survey hardly understood that the appointment by Gloria Arroyo during a prohibited period, was made possible by the majority of the Court – the “Magic Nine.”
Therefore, the Court or the majority who misinterpreted the Constitution for the benefit of Gloria Arroyo and Chief Justice Corona should also have a negative rating.
The result of the survey shows otherwise. The respondents pointedly declared they are not satisfied with the Chief Justice. That may be correct. But why should those who made him head of the Court not be equally held in disaffection?
This is the better indication of the “mistake” of including the Chief Justice and the Court in any kind of popularity or acceptability surveys.
The negative rating of the Chief Justice validates the people’s desire to support the House of Representatives and President Aquino to convict Mr. Corona in the impeachment trial.
The validation is not necessary. In fact, it may have the effect of influencing the Senate as judge of the impeachment trial in ruling for or against the Chief Justice.
A Chief Justice and his Court are self-fulfilled when they rule in their best minds without subjecting themselves to suspicions of bias.
Acceptability by the people is not their reward. The reward is in the honest belief that the rulings they make are based on their best knowledge of the Constitution and the laws.
The majority who ruled that Arroyo could appoint the Chief Justice during a prohibited period was a manifestation of patent bias, not only for Mr. Corona but for Gloria Arroyo. Therefore, they should also be given a negative rating.
For the record, Mr. Corona inhibited himself from the deliberation of the subject. Technically, he played no part in arriving at the ruling but benefited most from it.
If the respondents in the survey understood it that way, there should be another reason for giving the Chief Justice a negative rating. Was it because he accepted the appointment made possible by a ruling that people cannot accept but the decision cannot be changed either?
And that precisely is the reason for the impeachment? Not necessarily.
Rulings are not made for popularity reasons or for the purpose of giving the Chief Justice a high satisfaction rating.
Unfortunately, the decision that made Mr. Corona a Chief Justice is neither satisfying nor popular.
Mr. Corona is a winner turned loser. A satisfaction survey is not necessary to make him look so. He is so. The impeachment court will decide his fate. Not a survey.
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