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Chief Justice Renato Corona isn’t acting in, well, a judicious manner. After being bestowed with the dubious honor of being the very first Supreme Court Justice to be impeached by our House of Representatives, Corona came out swinging.He accused the President of persecuting him, he lashed out at the motives of the Congressmen who cast their votes for his impeachment, and came out before the press, with family and friends behind him to signify their support, airing his side and venting his grievances.Not exactly the sort of behavior that we expect to see from a sitting justice, and one holding the post of Chief Justice at that.
If there is any institution that depends on public perception for its credibility, it is the judiciary.It is this branch of the government that needs to have the public believe that it is wise, that it is infallible, for its decisions to have acceptability.If the public does not believe that the judges are good judges, that they will be impartial, and that they know best, that public will never submit to the authority of the court.Why, after all, would they let a defective institution decide their lives for them?Why allow themselves to be judged by men who are as flawed as they are?They need brilliant men to tell them what to do, men who are not just intellectual scholars, but also merciful and compassionate.
That holds true, to an even greater degree, with Supreme Court appointees.As the highest court in the land, the occupants need to be viewed as, yes, almost like gods.Gods who are perfect, gods who lord it over the rest of us foolish citizens and herd us into this or that direction depending on how they interpret the law.For us foolish sheep, we have to believe the herders aren’t leading us to doom.
Corona’s actuations in one way perpetuate that necessary myth.All that he has done is show us citizens that he is not above the fray.Instead, he’s dashed madly into the melee, arms swinging (figuratively) and tongue lashing (semi-literally).Yes, he can play politics too!He can play the press, giving them access to his inside views.He can spin the story, slanting the views to his side.He seeks to tug the heart strings of ordinary citizens, bewailing his impeachment as ‘an attack on the independence of the judicial branch,’ ‘an affront to all judges,’ a “Constitutional crisis”, a ‘threat to our democracy.’ Take your pick, they’re there for anyone willing to be taken in.
Not just that, but Corona has actually used his position to rally other justices, judges and judicial staff around him.He has galvanized them into action, leading a prayer rally and a stoppage of work.No hearings, no decisions?Prisoners spend an extra day in jail while their cases are decided?Litigants postpone their hearings to another day a month in the future as the judges have walked out?The halls of justice are closed because the nominal head is under attack?Is that what he is willing to let happen just so he can keep his position?
Corona denies that he ordered the instant judicial rally.Never mind there was a supposed message from his Court Administrator to branches around the country.If he was a real leader of that institution though, as soon as he saw all these court personnel were prepared to stop work for him, he should have stopped them in their tracks.He should have told all of them, “Don’t.Don’t do this for me. Go back to work.What you are doing, dispensing justice, is more important than me.”
But this, he did not do.Instead, he let it all play out, letting them pray to God here and rally there.We saw court staff with black armbands, and the spokesman of the court speaking not about ground breaking decisions of the high court, but what its occupant was doing and thinking at the moment.
By all these, Corona has granted ordinary citizens access to him.He has dispelled the cloak of mystery that surrounds the Supreme Court and its occupants, and let them see that it is occupied by imperfect individuals, with wants and needs and emotions and motives.
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