Respect

President Aquino isn’t doing anything that he didn’t promise in his election campaign, and so far he has not changed his opinion on controversial issues that have resurfaced today.

Benigno Aquino III was the only candidate in 2010 who promised unequivocally that if he won, he intended to prosecute Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for crimes committed during her presidency. His rivals would not or couldn’t promise it. Even Joseph Estrada, probably because GMA pardoned him after he was convicted of plunder, hesitated to make a categorical promise.

If candidate Noynoy won by a landslide, with a comfortable victory margin of five million votes, it can be safely presumed that the promise he alone could make was among the reasons.

Candidate Noynoy also cautioned GMA against appointing a chief justice. Section 15, Article 7 of the Constitution states: “Two months immediately before the next presidential elections and up to the end of his term, a President or Acting President shall not make appointments, except temporary appointments to executive positions when continued vacancies therein will prejudice public service or endanger public safety.”

Another constitutional provision is that any vacancy in the Supreme Court must be filled within 90 days. The seat of the chief justice became vacant on May 17 upon the retirement of Reynato Puno; GMA appointed Renato Corona to the post.

We are told that the law is what the SC says it is. But some of its official acts do not inspire confidence in the majesty of the law or the Supreme Court.

Then President-elect Noynoy immediately questioned the legitimacy of the appointment, and assailed the credibility of the Supreme Court that later upheld it. P-Noy’s criticism has been consistent.

He probably assumes that his supporters are behind his criticism. So far it seems the surveys bear him out. Pollster Pulse Asia conducted a survey nationwide amid the furor over the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order or TRO, issued ex parte or without giving the government a chance to comment, and the government’s response to it along with the speedy indictment and arrest of GMA for electoral sabotage. P-Noy emerged with 72 to 74 percent performance and trust ratings.

That’s not just his original base of support whose views are reflected in that survey. Also reflected are the opinions of every Pinoy who has ever had an unpleasant personal encounter with the justice system in this country, who has suffered injustice because of interminable delays or because justice is for sale. Even investors have suffered because their rivals have bought TROs or other favorable court orders from crooked judges.

We’ve also had a long history of brilliant lawyers mastering the law to go around it, and of crooked public officials using the law to shield themselves from prosecution and accountability. Philippine justice is also often perceived, with valid reason, to be biased for the rich; justice is not blind in this country.

P-Noy was rude to Corona at the justice summit, that’s true; Corona won points in the grace department there. This President can be tactless and needs to control his temper in public. His tirade was also colored by the timing, coming on the heels of a ruling by the SC against his family’s Hacienda Luisita.

But disrespect for the rule of law? You mean there’s rule of law in the Philippines? That’s what that justice summit was supposed to address. And P-Noy is a tyrant for taking on the Supreme Court? It’s not resonating. Like the police and Congress, the judiciary is viewed with distrust by the average Pinoy.

When someone rants about disrespect for the courts in this country, the message has a tough time sinking in. Respect is earned, not imposed. Pinoys aren’t going to walk in front of a tank or occupy Padre Faura to defend the courts.

Filipinos old enough to remember aren’t even too bothered by the sparring between P-Noy and Corona’s Supreme Court. It’s not the first time that the credibility of the nation’s highest court has come under fire. It was perceived as an arm of the martial law regime during Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship. Being a brilliant lawyer, Marcos wanted to be able to say that every official act he made was legal.

The judiciary being a co-equal branch of government, all that P-Noy can do is perorate in public against the SC and Corona, even if he is lambasted for rudeness. His congressional allies may also impeach a Supreme Court justice or two, although the Palace has tried to distance itself from this initiative.

If there is going to be any dramatic change in the SC under P-Noy’s watch, certain members of the judiciary themselves may also have to act.

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From the appointment and promotion of judges and justices, wherein connections (and signed pledges of loyalty) trump competence, our criminal justice system truly needs an overhaul.

In the past months the SC effectively opened the doors to perpetual litigation, with its reversal of its own decisions that were already for execution. Foreign investors are spooked by that possibility.

All these problems plaguing the system should have been addressed at the first national justice summit. Instead we have been preoccupied with the conflict between P-Noy and the Supreme Court.

His survey ratings can only encourage him to pursue his offensive. Eighteen months into a presidency in this country, 72 to 74 percent is quite high and a vote of confidence.

What P-Noy should not ignore in that survey is his slipping ratings in economic matters. He needs to create more jobs and other livelihood opportunities. Public patience wears thin quickly when there’s no food on the table and little hope for better times ahead.

If his ratings plummet, he will have a tough time getting political support for his reforms and fighting his battles. Unpopularity makes a president vulnerable to political compromises.

So far, if the surveys are accurate, he seems to have the public behind him in his sparring with the Supreme Court. Foreigners I have talked to mostly have one concern: what will be the denouement?

I doubt if many Pinoys really care who emerges as the winner here: P-Noy or Corona. The desired outcome is that our justice system – and the rule of law – will emerge stronger from this mess.