Blowback

Shut up and go back to your desk, Sec. Leila de Lima. There is a ton of work there crying out to be done. 

No effort was spared to make the JBC selection process as credible and as transparent to the public as possible. This included live broadcasting the Council’s interviews with nominees for the highest, most critical post in the judicial branch of government. That was unprecedented.

Unprecedented, too, was the publication of each Council member’s ballot and, consequently, the vote tally that produced a rather long shortlist forwarded to the President. Eight names are now on the Chief Executive’s desk. One of them will become the next Chief Justice.

Considering the traumatic impeachment of the previous Chief Justice, it was important to make the selection process as convincing as possible. After a messy impeachment process, no one really wants a messy selection process that will further undermine confidence in the Supreme Court.

De Lima now threatens to undo all that by crying conspiracy. She suggests three great institutions — the Supreme Court, the Judicial and Bar Council and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines — “connived” to prevent her from making it to the shortlist.

That is a serious allegation, one that some believe is worthy of a contempt ruling by the High Court. There is a narcissistic streak in the subtext of such an allegation. It is as if the universe conspired to block heaven’s gift to the Philippine judiciary — except that the ill-fated nominee in this case never sat a day on the bench nor contributed anything significant to our pool of legal scholarship.

Also unprecedented is the fact that a sitting Secretary of Justice aspired to be Chief Justice. That itself contributed to undermining the credibility of the process. De Lima made her bid from a position of influence. When she had to inhibit herself from the JBC proceedings because she was a nominee, the Palace appointed a legal aide to sit in the Council. That, too, is unprecedented since the DOJ’s seat in the JBC is ex officio.

Because de Lima insisted on vying for the post of Chief Justice, the proper course might have been for her to resign as Secretary of Justice. That would have cleared the way for the President to appoint an Acting Secretary to sit in the Council. Remember that the credibility of the selection process is more important than anyone’s obsessive ambitiousness.

An added imperfection in this particular selection process is the Congress’ insistence on having two seats in the JBC. The Court ruled against it but then relented for this particular selection process.

At any rate, we now have 8 names on the President’s desk. The process by which he arrives at his final choice will not be as transparent as the JBC process. Nevertheless, we hope that choice will be one the public may find reason to respect.

After a distasteful impeachment process, the last thing we need to rebuild our institutions is a bitterly contested choice for Chief Justice.

Absurd

If de Lima had returned to her desk, she will find there a resolution issued in her absence by one of her undersecretaries. That resolution has been condemned as “absurd” by foreign investors and has since been an item of concern for foreign chambers of commerce. Only de Lima can cure this legal absurdity.

The resolution in question was issued June 21, 2012 by Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar. It reverses the decision of the Legaspi City prosecutor to junk for lack of merit a case filed against T.C. Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TCPI), the Thai manufacturer of Red Bull energy drink. This is one of many apparently nuisance suits filed in courts all over the country against the Thai company by the former local distributor of the product.

TCPI terminated its contract with erstwhile local distributor Energy Food and Drinks Inc. (EFDI) for questionable business practices. The Thai company has since lodged an estafa suit involving P150 million against brothers George, Renato and Jaime Chua, owners of EFDI. The brothers once owned Photokina Marketing Corp. and Dreyers Ice Cream, both of which went under due to mismanagement. Photokina is the company involved in the poll automation contract with the Comelec several years ago that the Supreme Court voided for being inimical to the public interest.

The suit filed by EFDI against the Thai manufacturer alleges violation of intellectual property rights (for use of its very own product brand!) and unfair business practice (for choosing its preferred local distributor). This is like suing, say, the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta for selling products under the Coca-Cola name domestically and using its preferred local distributor to do so.

Little wonder that the Thai company, in its letter to de Lima, expressed shock at the “absurd” resolution issued by Usec. Salazar. This resolution could be used as a precedent for taking to court other foreign companies marketing their products in the Philippine market. Little wonder it caused much alarm among foreign investors in the country.

The Salazar resolution completely ignores a March 11, 2011 ruling by the DOJ’s own Task Force Anti-Intellectual Piracy that clears TCPI of charges of “false designation or origin, false description or representation under Section 169 of the Intellectual Property Code.” It likewise runs against the Court of Appeals ruling in a parallel case that recognizes T.C. Pharmaceutical’s right to choose its preferred local distributor.

This is a laughable resolution of strange inspiration that succeeds only in besmirching the reputation of a company doing robust business in the country.