EDITORIAL - Look who's playing deaf and blind

It has often been said that a lie told repeatedly will eventually seem true. Thankfully, life is essentially fair. Thus, all things being equal, there is always an exception to every rule. So it is with the repeated lie sounding true.

A perpetuated lie can only ring true if no one bothers to put the lie — or its assumed truth — in the right context. An example of a lie/truth situation is the composition of the present Supreme Court, which comes to light again in the wake of its Truth Commission decision.

The Supreme Court, voting 10-5, struck down as unconstitutional the Truth Commission created by President Aquino to go after former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo over her alleged involvement in several but as yet unproven abuses and scandals.

Supporters of Aquino and critics of Arroyo are united in saying that it did not come as a surprise for the Supreme Court to strike down Executive Order No. 1 because, except for one new justice appointed by Aquino, the rest are Arroyo appointees.

It is correct to say that 14 of the 15 current justices are Arroyo appointees. It is wrong to say they will always vote in favor of Arroyo simply because she appointed them. To put things into context, Arroyo made the appointments because the vacancies happened in her watch.

It is not as if Arroyo just made appointments to sow the seeds of future favors. The fact is, she had to make those appointments even if she did not want to, or did not like any of the prospects. Not to do so would have made her remiss in her duties and risk getting impeached.

The truth is, Aquino would do the same for as long as vacancies happen during his watch. If it should happen that in his six-year-term vacancies will arise involving all 15 Supreme Court seats, then it will also become an Aquino court in its own time.

The big question is, will Aquino be similarly vilified for carrying out his appointive responsibilities? Judging by the prevailing political mood, he probably won’t. For as Aquino himself insists, people who do not see and hear things as he does are blind and deaf.

The SC is an “Arroyo Court” only because she had to fill the vacancies that occurred in her term. But as the 10-5 decision shows, the court isn’t really hers. Yet, despite the evidence, it is Aquino and his supporters who are in truth “nagbulag-bulagan at nagbingibingi-an lang.”