BY NESTOR MATA
MALAYA
MALAYA
‘He promised to follow his campaign mantra of “daang matuwid’, but after two years in office his straight path has become a crooked road!’
When President Noynoy Aquino came to office over two years ago he promised to deliver a “new kind of politics.” He did— his own unilateral governance. This has turned out to be a monocracy, a form of government in which the ruler is not restricted by a Constitution or other laws of the land. In one word, a dictator!
Today, we all are witnessing how Aquino has taken almost full control of all three branches of government – the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary – which are co-equal and independent of each other as mandated by the Constitution.
Already, as the Chief Executive he is in absolute control of all departments, bureaus and agencies, which consider his every wish, whim and will as diktats. He also has in the palm of his hand almost both chambers of Congress.
We have seen how members of the House of Representatives, except those in the opposition, have become so malleable that he can make them do whatever he wants. The same goes for the Senate, except for some genuinely independent solons.
That’s why when Aquino wanted the incumbent Chief Justice Renato C. Corona of the Supreme Court ousted, he simply dangled wads and wads of pork barrel lucre before the greedy eyes of 188 congressmen who signed an impeachment complaint against Corona and dispatched it to the Senate where 20 senator-judges, succumbing to veiled threats emanating from you-know-who in the Palace, convicted him, in clear violation of his basic rights to due process as mandated by the Constitution.
Now, Aquino is about to get his wish of having his own “Aquino court,” just like his predecessor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had her own “Arroyo court,” when the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) hands him on a silver platter the name of the nominee he wants to appoint as his very own Chief Justice.
When this happens, then Aquino will have absolutely complete of all three branches of government, ever ready to do his bidding. He can then have his own way and pursue his personal agenda of government. And that, as I noted above and many times in this column, means that he’s transforming our democracy into a government of one man!
***
The way Aquino has been pressuring the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) in drawing up a shortlist of prospective nominees for Chief Justice is the latest proof of his new style of unilateral governance.
He is in effect dictating to the JBC, a constitutional body, to ignore its rule on disqualifying candidates for positions in the Supreme Court and include in its shortlist his favored nominee, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who has been disqualified already because she’s facing disbarment proceedings as well as criminal cases filed against her.
Under the JBC rules, specifically Rule 4, Section 5, those disqualified from being nominated or appointed to any judicial, Ombudsman or deputy Ombudsman position include those with pending criminal or regular administrative cases or criminal cases.
If the JBC succumbs to presidential pressure, it would not only be disrespecting the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), a body of lawyers, which has rejected De Lima appeal to drop the disbarment case against her, but also defying the Supreme Court’s decision that those cases against her should be pursued, thus disqualifying De Lima, who, as our Malaya Business Insight publisher Jake Macasaet succinctly put it, is an “unfit nominee for Chief Justice.”
So, what Aquino is doing to the JBC shows that he is not averse to trampling the Constitution, as he has been doing many times since Day One of his presidency, this time just so he can appoint a chief justice completely under his control, not one like Corona, who fought for the independence of the Supreme Court, the highest tribunal of the land.
Do we need more proof to show that Noynoy Aquino is indeed leading the Filipino nation not to what he had promised to be the “daang matuwid” or the straight path, but to a crooked road to dictatorship, once again?
***
07Quotable quote: “The problems that politicians deal with are great; the expectations of the people are great; the politicians themselves are not!” – Anon.
Thought of the Day: “A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woes of his people. There are a few such men, hence the erratic quality of leadership that we are witnessing today.” – John Updike
No comments:
Post a Comment