That the Supreme Court would eventually declare unconstitutional the Truth Commission created by President Aquino should not come as a surprise. Everybody but the most politically myopic knows not even the president can create his own special squad to go after his enemies.
That Aquino would suffer another setback does not come as a surprise either. Everybody knew he was never equipped to become president. When Filipinos voted him into office, they simply decided Cory's son was worth enduring six years of trial-and-error.
Thus, here we are, counting the many times the Aquino administration has had to recall, revise and revoke, or otherwise get struck down in its policy orders and directives, to the great embarrassment of the Philippines before a watching international community.
But then again, that is what normally happens when an unprepared president makes things worse by surrounding himself with appointees qualified not by exceptional brilliance but by the ability to flash a certain color on demand.
The real surprise, actually, is why former chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. (one of the few exceptions in the group) did not see it coming. When he agreed to head the commission, did he honestly believe, with all his legal expertise, that his horse had a legal leg to stand on?
Or was he just unable to say no to Aquino, like he was unable to say no to Aquino's hated predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who as president named him permanent representative to the United Nations, which turned out not so permanent at all when he resigned to join Aquino.
Maybe, by taking on the job as head of the commission, knowing from the start he would violate no law if the Supreme Court eventually strikes it down before it could fly, Davide was simply being both shrewd and polite.
To refuse the job, knowing how Aquino longs to get Arroyo, would have disappointed the president. Taking it, on the other hand, would ingratiate him to Malacañang. And it harms no one, including himself, knowing its unconstitutionality could never get past Supreme Court scrutiny.