Protests vs SC mount

Source: Daily Inquirer
Protesters warned: Don’t cross the limits
By Dona Pazzibugan, Jeannette Andrade
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:36:00 03/20/2010


MANILA, Philippines—Two rotten eggs with the words, “SC no balls,” and the faces of nine justices going up in a bonfire.

This was the most extreme of the protests that rained on the Supreme Court on Friday as outraged militants, lawyers, professionals and politicians denounced a ruling that exempted the high court from a constitutional ban against midnight appointments by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“I’m totally outraged. The Supreme Court is the bulwark of democracy,” said economics professor and Inquirer columnist Solita Monsod as she and Sen. Francis Pangilinan led less than a hundred protesters in a noontime rally outside the Supreme Court offices in Manila Friday.

Holding a bullhorn, Monsod said: “Supreme Court, can you listen to us? Defend the Constitution instead of interpreting it.”

She singled out for praise the only Supreme Court justice who dissented from the majority decision. “Mabuhay si Conchita Carpio-Morales,” Monsod said.

The Kabataan party-list group burned a tarpaulin with the images of the nine Supreme Court justices who interpreted the constitutional provision against midnight appointments to allow President Arroyo to appoint Chief Justice Reynato Puno’s successor six weeks before she steps down from office.

Midas Marquez, the Supreme Court spokesperson and court administrator, said the high court magistrates were used to such “pressures” but warned protesters against crossing the limits of their right to free speech and assembly.

“In big cases like this emotions run high but the Court has to decide with reason. We cannot be swayed by emotion. We have to be guided by the provisions of the Constitution. There will be those who will disagree but the Court is the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution,” Marquez said.

He noted that the rally was sparsely attended.

“It seems to me many of them are the same people who have given their views even before the petitions were filed. They stand firm on their views. I don’t blame them. That’s their right. That’s a valid exercise of their constitutional right,” Marquez said.


“They can do that for as long as they want. I hope they don’t resort to violence,” he said.

He said the presidential candidates who said they were against the court decision will have to ultimately follow the high court’s final ruling.

Should the incoming president reject Ms Arroyo’s appointment of the next Chief Justice, Marquez said: “That’s their own look-out. I don’t know how that can happen especially if the appointment was done according to constitutional provisions.”

Democracy endangered

Presidential candidate Jamby Madrigal and senatorial candidates Riza Hontiveros-Baraquel and Adel Tamano, joined some 80 members of the Akbayan and the Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN) in a march to the Supreme Court from the corner of T. M. Kalaw and Taft Ave.

Akbayan said the Supreme Court decision had jeopardized democracy.

Democracy is endangered when checks and balances are not enforced and one individual is allowed “to abrogate unto himself the powers of government,” said lawyer Arlene Bag-ao.


“This is not only a very bad judicial decision but a very bad precedent. We cannot afford a Supreme Court which will act as the President’s rubber stamp,” she said.

Burning photos

To manifest their outrage, the militants burned photographs of Supreme Court justices Lucas Bersamin, Teresita de Castro, Arturo Brion, Diosdado Peralta, Mariano del Castillo, Roberto Abad, Martin Villarama Jr, Jose Perez, and Jose Mendoza, the nine who voted to allow the appointment, along with an effigy of Ms Arroyo.

They also lit black candles and incense, intended to drive away the “bad spirits” that they said had possessed the Supreme Court.

Other prominent personalities at the rally were Teresita Deles, a former presidential peace adviser to Ms Arroyo, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño, Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes and Vince Lazatin of TAN.

Monsod’s husband Christian Monsod, a member of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution, said the Charter was clear that the prohibition against midnight appointments extends to appointments in both the executive and the judiciary.

Section 15, Article VII prohibits the President from making appointments two months before the May 10 elections and until the end of her term on June 30. Puno will retire on May 17, or a week after the elections.

Nine justices however said the provision applies only to appointments in the executive department. They cited another constitutional provision, Section 4 and 9 of Article VIII, that requires the President to fill up the vacancies in the judiciary within 90 days.

Of the nine justices who voted that Ms Arroyo can appoint the next Chief Justice, Bersamin, De Castro, Abad, Villarama and Perez also ruled that Ms Arroyo can appoint all vacancies in the judiciary until June 30; while Brion, Peralta, Del Castillo and Mendoza ruled to exempt only the Supreme Court from the midnight appointments ban.

Associate Justices Antonio Nachura and Presbitero Velasco Jr. said the case was not yet ripe for decision.

Three inhibited themselves—Puno and the two most senior justices and main contenders for the post, Antonio Carpio and Renato Corona.