The JBC:A "daang matuwid" railroad company

When I went to Panglao, Bohol with my TV Crew for the media event of the upcoming 5-Star Bellevue Resort, I was slated to interview the people behind Bohol’s newest hotel resort attraction, which we will be showing in the coming weeks. However I did stumble with our dear old friend, Johnny Litton and interviewed him which we already shown last week. What was totally unexpected was that during dinner, Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto was on our table and when I asked him for an interview… he immediately obliged.

So tonight, we have with us the Bohol Governor who will talk to us about the economic development and growth of Bohol, especially in the Tourism Industry. When Gov. Chatto was Congressman of the 1st District of Bohol, Catigbian where the Segura Farms of my mother’s family is located has began to develop an eco-tourism. One would never believe that Catigbian could be transformed into one of Bohol’s tourist destinations. These are just one of Gov. Chatto’s achievements. So watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 p.m. with replays on MyTV channel 28 on MWF.

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The choice for the next Chief Justice of the Philippines is extremely crucial because whoever that person maybe… we expect him to be above board with total competence, integrity and above all… that he should not be seen as a lackey of Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III. If there was anything that I truly admired with former Chief Justice Renato Corona… it was his persistence to show the independence of the Judiciary over the two other supposed “Independent” branches of the government. Alas… the Judiciary is fast losing that “Independence” from the Executive and Legislative.

If CJ Corona was removed from his post as the highest magistrate of the land… it is not because the Senate nor Congress was able to prove that he was an Arroyo lackey… nor did they prove that he stole something from the government… the politicians removed him simply because the real “Boss” Pres. Aquino hated him and in this era of Pork Barrel which Malacañang controls…everyone kowtows to the President.

It is for that reason that two heads of constitutional bodies, notably Ms. Heidi Mendoza of the Commission on Audit (COA) and Conchita Carpio-Morales of the Ombudsman agreed to testify against CJ Corona during the Senate impeachment trial. They proved to the Filipino people that they are nothing but puppets of the President. Another PNoy puppet is Department of Justice’s Leila de Lima who testified against CJ Corona. Now her name is among those in the list of the Judicial & Bar Council (JBC), which just deferred for the nth time the short list for the next Chief Justice.

Why is it that the JBC deferred that vote on the question whether to suspend the rules for disqualification for those nominees with pending regular or administrative cases before the Supreme Court? Clearly, the JBC members are “under pressure” from Malacañang not to remove the name of Justice Sec. Leila de Lima who in my book is the odds on favorite front-runner of Pres. Aquino.

Surely by now, Malacañang knows that many Filipinos feel that CJ Corona’s impeachment trial was railroaded by the minions of Daang Matuwid. It only took 188 members of Congress less than an hour to impeach him. But in the case of the Senate… they needed that live TV coverage which they wanted to use “In Aid of Reelection”. But in the end, they… just like what happened in Congress… railroaded the ouster of CJ Corona.

Today… we are seeing another Daan Matuwid railroad in the offing from the JBC. First… the JBC insisted that there should only be one member of the Legislature in the JBC… but both Senator Chiz Escudero and Rep. Neil Tupas questioned why Congress only had one vote. But isn’t this written in the 1987 Constitution? But instead of voting and insisting on only one member… the JBC decided to temporarily allow the two from continuing their duties as members of the JBC… which in my book is totally unconstitutional. This “wishy-washy” behavior of the JBC proves that the members are literally under the “gun” of PNoy.

At this point, we can only warn the JBC that, they must chose from the shortlist persons with proven probity and integrity… and without any stain of any administrative cases… which unfortunately DOJ Sec. de Lima has because she defied the Supreme Court. At this point… I’m not counting de Lima out… but if PNoy appoints her… then even the Judiciary itself would revolt against the Executive. I know for a fact that there are many good judges out there who are quietly suffering from the trashing of the Judiciary by our politicians. I suggest that PNoy show some kind of respect to our Judiciary… lest all this would backfire on him…someday.

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