THE NEWLY PROCLAIMED REPRESENTATIVE OF the second district of Pampanga, President Macapagal-Arroyo, has an urgent message for the nation: “Don’t get too excited over the election results; with me, it’s still politics as usual.” A mere two days after the country’s first, and generally successful, nationwide automated elections, and only five days before Chief Justice Reynato Puno retires from the Supreme Court, she created a new position: that of Chief-Justice-in-waiting. The timing, and the choice of her former aide, Justice Renato Corona, tell us the appointment was yet one more political act of the most politically partisan president since 1986.
We do not question Corona’s credentials, and do not think his record of voting with the administration position on crucial issues like the threshold Romulo Neri executive privilege case necessarily disqualifies him from the position of chief justice. (To insist on a record of voting against the administration position would be a form of partisanship in itself. Independence is the crucial thing.) We do, however, question Corona’s position, and those of the majority of the justices, that President Arroyo can name the next chief justice despite the clear constitutional ban, supported by the record of deliberations in the Constitutional Commission itself, on midnight appointments.
We question the Court’s deliberate misreading of the Constitution, and its upending of the traditional rules of statutory construction, that allowed it to decide that the appointments ban did not apply to the judiciary. We realize the basic truth of the lawyer’s dictum that the Constitution is what the Supreme Court says it is. But we also recognize that, like King Canute, the Court’s kingly prerogative cannot run counter to the natural laws. It cannot dictate that water must rise above its source, or that its interpretation of two key provisions must be favored over the actual, demonstrated intent of the Constitution’s framers.
Above all, we question President Arroyo’s insistence that making the appointment, even at this time, is in the national interest. It isn’t. The Constitution itself allows a hiatus in appointments; the Court can continue to function, and function well, with only an acting chief justice; the country can wait for the next chief justice to be appointed, as is both prudent and proper, by the next president.
Rushing the appointment, therefore, only means that political considerations are at stake. Either President Arroyo wants to complete her transformation of the highest tribunal into an Arroyo Court, favorably disposed to her in the many cases she will inevitably face after she leaves Malacañang, or she has already horse-traded the position to Corona, once her chief of staff, spokesman, and legal counsel. Either way, it is a shameful fiat, and disastrous for the Court.
Again, this is not to say that Corona cannot or ought not to be chief justice, only that he cannot and ought not to be chief justice under these circumstances.
Sen. Benigno Aquino III, the apparent victor of Monday’s polls, has called on the President to reconsider the appointment. (We think he should follow this up by putting the appeal in writing.) This may prove a useful tack, if President Arroyo listens.
If she continues to insist that she can and should appoint the next chief justice, however, perhaps the following compromise may be in order: Recall the appointment, return the short list of nominees to the Judicial and Bar Council, ask immediately for a new list, then appoint Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales. With only a year left before her retirement, Justice Carpio-Morales may offer the best hope of defusing a looming struggle between the Court and the incoming president. Her appointment will allow Corona and the other justices to “live down” the accusations of Arroyo bias, and give the next president a free hand to choose her successor.
At the same time, by appointing Carpio-Morales, Ms Arroyo will be able to maintain her stance that the appointment of an immediate replacement for Puno is necessary—and create a new title that the public will surely welcome: the first female chief justice in history.
Otherwise, everything is just politics as usual. Par for the crooked course.