Batas Mauricio
IS there any benefit in celebrating the Philippines’ so-called “118 years of independence” when, clearly, Filipinos remain imprisoned in their own selfish and greedy, corrupt and decadent, selves?
Independence from what? From foreign domination? Well, we only have to look at various parts of our supposed territory today and we can see that foreigners still dominate all of us, in almost every aspect of our lives. Independence from poverty and want? We only have to go around in Metro Manila anytime, and we can see that Filipinos scrounge garbage cans just to find food!
Pardon me but this annual celebration of our country’s supposed independence is in reality a big sham, a mere opportunity for politicians to mouth their slogans anew, even if the only thing they have truly done is to sink all of us deeper into the quagmire of division, economic difficulty, and graft and corruption.
We can only celebrate independence if Filipinos no longer have to fear going out of their houses because criminals, instead of law enforcers, roam the streets, ready to kill and be killed for a few pesos; if Filipinos no longer have to go abroad to earn a decent wage, even if in return their families break and their children grow up to be rebels, drug addicts, and dregs of society.
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Returning Sen. Francis Pangilinan must be squirming wherever he is nowadays, even if, in just a few days, he will be among those who will be reinstalled in the Senate to assume the task of lawmaking once more. Why? All because his pet legislation, the Juvenile Justice Law, is being mocked almost everywhere now, with the impending rule of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.
You see, Pangilinan’s law prohibits anyone, including the police and barangay officials, from arresting any young person who have committed even the most heinous crime. The authorities who will arrest these young criminals will be the ones who will be prosecuted and severely punished, under Pangilinan’s law.
Yet, Duterte’s policies on child curfew and the imposition of penalties for parents of children who commit crimes have clearly set aside Pangilinan’s law. This is stupendous because child curfew is imposed by mere city or local ordinances which are much lower, and should therefore give way, to Pangilinan’s law. The silence of Pangilinan on this matter is deafening, really!
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Was President Aquino’s recent appointment of two Sandiganbayan justices--Michael Frederick Musngi and Maria Geraldine Faith Econg--a violation of the Constitution and must therefore be voided?
Acting on an unprecedented petition filed by five Regional Trial Court (RTC) judges--Philip Aguinaldo, Reynaldo Alhambra, Danilo Cruz, Benjamin Pozon, and Salvador Timbang Jr.--and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), the Supreme Court decided to look into this issue, which has the makings of a grave scandal in the appointment of members of the judiciary under the Aquino government.
The RTC judges and the IBP charged that Musngi and Econg should not have been appointed Sandiganbayan justices because their names were not in the list of nominees submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC). Under the 1987 Constitution, only the nominees whose names appear in the JBC list could be appointed by the President.
Here is what Section 9, Art. VIII, of the Constitution provides: “The Members of the Supreme Court and judges of lower courts shall be appointed by the President from a list of at least three nominees preferred by the Judicial and Bar Council for every vacancy. Such appointments need no confirmation.”
An online media report on the Supreme Court order in the case filed by the RTC judges and by the IBP said however that the names of Musngi and Econg were in “a different shortlist (so that) they should not have been named to the Sandiganbayan.”
The same media report (see http://thestandard.com.ph/news/-main-stories/top-stories/207635/aquino-ordered-to-comment-on-judges-petition.html) said the complaining RTC judges were the ones “shortlisted for a vacant position in the Sandiganbayan and they claim Aquino violated the Constitution when he appointed… Musngi… and Econg as the… associate justices of the Sandiganbayan…”
This petition by the RTC judges and by the IBP is the first of its kind in the Philippines, after all appointments to the judiciary were required to be preceded by a system of selection and nomination carried out by the JBC under the 1987 Constitution. Never before was any appointment of any judge or justice contested on the ground that the appointee was not among those nominated by the JBC.
There have been reports during earlier times about “snow-paking”, or erasing the names of appointees by white liquid commercially known as “snowpake” and replacing them with other names at the Office of the President itself, but nobody dared to complain publicly, much less with a formal petition with the high court.
Lawyers and judges and justices should therefore welcome what Aguinaldo and Co. and the IBP did here, not only to clear the truth about the appointments of Musngi and Econg, but more to punish any wrongdoing or constitutional infringement by anyone and thereby prevent a repetition in the future, particularly by officials who think that with their popularity, they can do away even with murder!
E-mail: batasmauricio@ yahoo.com
