Sen. Santiago comes to Corona’s defense

An ally of President Benigno Aquino’s on Thursrday rejected the calls for Chief Justice Renato Corona to inhibit himself from the cases involving former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who had appointed him to the Supreme Court.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who had supported Arroyo during the latter’s term, particularly lambasted a group that is leading the campaign to force Corona off the cases against Arroyo, saying that their effort could be aimed at replacing Corona with Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

“In effect, the pressure on Corona to inhibit is an effort to substitute him with Carpio. If it could be said that Corona may be biased in favor of Arroyo, it could also be said that Carpio may be biased against Arroyo,” Santiago said.

Santiago sent her statement from New York where she is campaigning for a seat in the International Criminal Court.

Santiago did not name the group she was referring to, but former Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros recently formed the “Bantay Gloria Network” with Leah Navarro of the Black and White Movement, NBN-ZTE witness Jun Lozada and a student from the University of the Philippines. The first three are known to be staunchly anti-Arroyo.

Akbayan Representative Arlene Bag-ao announced that her group, whose members had been appointed to key positions in the Aquino administration, would file an impeachment complaint against Corona.

Santiago said the efforts to pressure Corona into inhibiting himself were “arrogant and supercilious.”

“This group is suffering from doctrinal confusion on the nature of a tripartite democracy. They want to be higher than the Supreme Court. It is improper for the political branches (executive and legislative) to influence the judicial branch. But this group thinks that it is the fourth branch. You have to admire their hubris,” she said.

“We cannot allow the composition of the Supreme Court in a certain case to be determined by an unelected exterior group on the basis of the group’s own political biases.”

Santiago added: “Those crying for the inhibition of the Chief Justice are trying to be a law unto themselves. They seek no less than the unconstitutional power to determine who will judge what cases. The Constitution does not grant that power to anybody, no matter how strident or self-righteous.”

The senator warned that forcing Corona to inhibit himself would lead to a “damaged democracy.”

“If a howling mob is allowed to pressure the Chief Justice or any justice into inhibiting themselves, that would serve as a calamitous precedent. Any litigant would then be able to pressure an impartial judge to inhibit himself, in order to obtain a group decision from the substitute,” she said.