Restraint

When the Supreme Court finally decided, by a vote of 9-5, that Ferdinand E. Marcos may be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LnB), few lawyers were surprised. The court ruled, as it should, very strictly on the legal issues.

One magistrate who voted with the majority aptly described the decision as an exercise in “judicial restraint.” The essence of the petition against the burial was that the President committed grave abuse of authority in accommodating the request of the Marcos family.

That was a tenuous claim to begin with. The rules for admission into the LnB were simply that one was a soldier or a former President of the Republic. Ferdinand E. Marcos was both. No grave abuse of discretion was committed. In fact, no discretion was exercised. The rules were simply obeyed.

The petitioners wanted the Court to rule on complex historical issues, to arbitrarily render judgment on whether the martial law regime was good or bad and, finally provide an interpretation on Marcos himself. Those are fuzzy issues way beyond the Court’s competence to settle by one swoosh of the pen.

In a word, the petitioners wanted the Supreme Court to render a political decision on a period in our history. That is not the Court’s job. They only render decisions on matters of law.

It was, to begin with, the yellow mob that politicized this burial in the first place. Over so many years, they resisted burial at the LnB, interpreting this to be a form of rehabilitating the autocrat. No burial ever accomplished that.

In their petition before the Court, they claimed that President Duterte cleared the way for the burial as payment for political debt. That is intrigue rather than fact.

The National Historical Commission tried to get into the act by announcing what most of us already know: that most of Marcos’ war medals were fakes. But that is not the issue at bar.

As if to complete the cycle of politicizing the matter of one burial, Noynoy Aquino materialized at a rally to try and dissuade the Court from agreeing to the burial. By the time the rally was held, the matter was already decided and all their noise was for naught. They might as well have prayed for a thunderbolt from heaven.

Noynoy’s rallying recalled that sad day his mother marched on the Philippine Senate after it was clear the case for retaining US bases in our territory was lost. Noynoy could only demean the Court as his mother demeaned the Senate.

That he appeared in the rally with Mar Roxas in tow only convinced us another defeat for them is forthcoming.

Aimless

And defeat for DOTr Secretary Art Tugade on the matter of a transport crisis act also seems forthcoming.

The Transport Secretary is hard-pressed to shore up legislative support for his plea for emergency powers to bring immediate relief to the problem of congestion. He has so far failed to impress the key legislators who need to support his proposals. Some of these key legislators have, in fact, become more openly critical the past few days.

House transport committee chairman Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, for instance, now says the only thing Tugade has convinced them about is how confused he is about his job.

“Since the Department of Transportation is confused on the specific powers it needs, we helped you understand that you already have the power to effect change in the transportation sector,” Sarmiento pointedly told Tugade.  “When we studied your proposals, most of the powers that you want are either included in your mandates or are already addressed by existing laws,” the legislator added.

Some legislators are more forthright in asking for Tugade’s resignation. Rep. Gary Alejano says the Transport Secretary has become baggage for the President. When the Commission on Appointments bypassed Tugade’s nomination, Rep. Tobias Tiangco interprets this a signal Congress sends to the President.

In addition to the disillusioned legislators, two advocacy groups have openly called for Tugade to be replaced. The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement lists Tugade’s bad decisions, including questionable contracts, when he headed the Clark Development Corporation during the previous administration.

The Road Users Protection Advocates accuses Tugade of being “tainted with vested interests” arising from his having worked for companies in the private sector who are now players in the transport industry.  The group scores the Transport Secretary for “incredible and fantastic solutions” that elicited only sneers from transport experts. Among these is a reported plan to install cable cars across the whole length of Laguna de Bay for commuters from Laguna coming to Manila.

Senator Grace Poe, chair of the Senate committee on public services, accuses the Transport Secretary of attempting to pull a fast one on Congress by including in the emergency powers proposal projects that have nothing to do with alleviating traffic flow.

Her colleague, Sen. Ralph Recto expressed his own dismay over Tugade’s failure to come up with a clear traffic decongestion plan. Meanwhile, traffic continues to worsen in the metropolis, especially as we move into the Christmas shopping season.

By the nature of his position, Tugade has now become the country’s top traffic manager. That is surely a tough job. But he has to deliver palpable results soon or become the lightning rod for the people’s anger.

The critical comments coming from legislators could be foreboding of a resounding public outcry. Tugade and his President must decide quite soon if the “transport czar” could creditably carry out the job. Commuters are angrier by the day.