Petulant monarch

Strategic Perspective

René B. Azurin

"Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?" a petulant King Henry II cries, and the sycophants around him interpret this as an order to eliminate the subject of his ire. So, four knights ride to the cathedral at Canterbury and murder Archbishop Thomas Becket who had committed the unpardonable sin of contesting the sole authority of the king in his realm. I am reminded of this 12^th century event by President Aquino's own petulant tirades against Chief Justice Corona.

Will no one rid me of this troublesome judge?, Mr. Aquino seems to be saying when he rails on the oddest occasions at the subject of his ire, his face showing the extreme annoyance of an offended monarch. Having ordered his sycophantic followers in Congress to impeach the Chief Justice, Mr. Aquino apparently cannot understand why this irksome fellow is still around and challenging his authority. Born to wealth and privilege, Mr. Aquino is perhaps somewhat ill-prepared to deal with any delays in the gratification of his expressed wishes.

Seemingly, like any true monarch to the role born, Mr. Aquino has no patience with such little niceties as legal procedure or constitutional process. He is apparently not content with the circumscribed and constrained powers of a democratic president and may be more comfortable ruling with the unlimited powers of the absolute monarch. What he wants, it seems, is that, having accused the Chief Justice -- the head of the judicial branch of government -- of corruption and betrayal of the public trust, the legislative branch -- entrusted by our powers-separating Constitution with the prosecution and trial of impeachable officials -- will immediately rubber-stamp him guilty and remove him from his post. Could it be, I wonder, that Mr. Aquino once watched the film Becket and saw himself in the role of King Henry? That might be understandable considering how magnificently that role was played by the actor Peter O'Toole, completely overshadowing Richard Burton in the part of the Archbishop of Canterbury who foolishly thinks that the powers of the king should not extend to the province of the church.

Accuser, Judge, Jury, and Executioner may be what Mr. Aquino wants his presidential role to be. If we are to be constrained by prescribed legal processes, we will need to amend our present Constitution to give Mr. Aquino all those powers. Considering Mr. Aquino's current popularity, however, he may wish to embark on such a Constitution-amending attempt since he may well have a fighting chance of succeeding. He can then be a petulant monarch instead of a democratic president. My advice, though, would be that such an amendment contain the proviso that such a turning-back-the-clock-of-history centralization of powers would end when Mr. Aquino steps down from his monarchical presidency -- whenever that may eventually be -- since his successor may not possess all of Mr. Aquino's saintly virtues. The people of this nation may not really appreciate a government wherein all the ruling president has to do is point an accusing finger and the "accusee" is gone.daang matuwid?" Are we to understand that the process he envisions to get to that so-called straight path is one wherein all he will have to do is say the words, Will no one rid me of this troublesome person?, and that person will be immediately removed from whatever position in society or government he might happen to occupy?

Should we, therefore, also understand this to mean that, in that process, all Mr. Aquino has to do is cry, Will no one rid me of the troublesome justices who voted that the "just compensation" to which my precious Cojuangco family relatives are entitled to for giving up Hacienda Luisita is the low value of the land in 1989 and not its much higher market value in 2006?, and all those uncooperative justices will be impeached and ousted?

Reform is not possible if Mr. Corona is not ousted, Mr. Aquino is reported to have said. Really? If this is indeed what Mr. Aquino believes, then he may have somehow missed seeing how the powers of government are presently distributed in this country. After 12 long years in government as a member of Congress and almost two years now as Chief Executive, it is rather strange that it has escaped Mr. Aquino that the power to bring about reform in this country lies principally with the executive and legislative branches of government. It is the Executive branch that actually administers the government and manages the economy, and it is the Legislative branch that appropriates the funds and passes the laws that prescribe the rules whereby the society is to operate. The Judicial branch is merely a referee in disputes regarding the interpretation of laws and an adjudicator in conflicts concerning the assertion of rights. Moreover, though the Judicial branch has been provided the power to reform its own procedures and processes, those changes must still be within the bounds set by the laws passed by the legislature.

Furthermore, even granted that Mr. Corona has been influenced by many notoriously corrupt government executives into feathering his own nest and holding up much needed reforms in the Judiciary, he is, in the end, merely one solitary member of a collegial body of justices and his individual power is really limited only to his own vote in what are always collective decisions. How he, by himself, can be an impenetrable barrier to whatever reforms Mr. Aquino wants to implement is a source of wonder to me. But then, it must be because I do not possess the appropriate kingly perspective.