Pattern shows in SC rulings

Supreme Court rulings have been very hot of late. The decisions are perceived to be political, if not partisan. And there is an emerging pattern of justices consistently voting together, to concur or dissent.

Decidedly most contentious was last March. The SC ruled that Gloria Arroyo can name a Chief Justice, despite the constitutional ban on appointments by a leaving President. Before that, talk resounded of Arroyo wishing to put her former spokesman, Justice Renato Corona, to the top SC post. Pleas abounded for her to let her elected successor name the next CJ. In April Arroyo did appoint Corona, sparking protests by lawyers. Then-leading presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino declared he would rebuff Arroyo’s nominee, and did so at the start of his Presidency.

Corona inhibited from deliberations; so did foremost CJ contender and more senior Justice Antonio Carpio. Voting for Arroyo’s appointing right, with slightly differing views, were Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Roberto Abad, Martin Villarama, Jose Perez, and Jose Mendoza. (See table.) Justices Presbitero Velasco and Antonio Eduardo Nachura opined that the issue was not yet justiciable since Arroyo had not yet made any appointment. Only Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales dissented. Justice Maria Lourdes Aranal-Sereno was named to the SC (by Aquino) only in August. But during the debates she had faxed to all justices her lawyerly stand against the midnight appointment, as head of a policy think tank.

Since then, Carpio, Carpio-Morales, and Sereno have dissented from other majority decisions. The rest have concurred with the ponencia, if not on official travel or leave. Foremost of these cases are the:

• Impeachment complaints at the House of Representatives against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. On Gutierrez’s petition, the majority issued a status quo ante order on the committee on justice to stop evaluating the complaints. The House is presently contesting the constitutionality of the co-equal SC interfering in congressional matters.

• President Aquino’s Executive Order No. 2 firing Arroyo’s 200-plus midnight executive appointees. The majority issued a status quo ante order reinstating Bai Omera Dianalan Lucman as head of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos. The order pertained only to Lucman, one of four separate petitioners against E.O.-2. Aquino warned, however, that it will incite more court cases from the dismissed appointees.

• Plagiarism case against Justice del Castillo. Del Castillo was ponente of the case of Filipino women forced into white slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II. He allegedly lifted portions of international studies and articles, without attribution to the authors and for use contrary to their legal stands. The majority cleared him, saying he meant no malice.

• Show-cause order on 37 University of the Philippines law deans and professors. Upon newsbreak of the alleged plagiarism, the U.P. mentors had petitioned del Castillo to resign. Now that the justice has been cleared, the majority wants the petitioners to explain why they should not be cited for indirect contempt of court.

Carpio, Carpio-Morales and Sereno have voted together on another case, involving the seniority of four Appellate Court justices. While they concurred with the majority, they rendered a different opinion, along with Nachura and Brion. From the pattern, lawyers are predicting how the highest court of the land will rule on two more controversial cases: the validity of stock options as land reform for the Aquino-Cojuangco family’s Hacienda Luisita, and Aquino’s E.O. -1 creating the Truth Commission.

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“’Father died yesterday’ contains more words than a volume on death.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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