Lawyers split over President-Chief Justice public spat

BAGUIO CITY—Members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) are divided over the public spat between President Benigno Aquino III and Chief Justice Renato Corona, although many of them believe that the move to oust Corona is extra constitutional, an IBP official said Monday.

Speaking at an Integrity Initiatives Workshop held by Transparency International-Philippines, IBP general counsel Ramon Esguerra said lawyers viewed the attacks made by the President against Corona as an assault against the legal system, “and this is whether you are a friend or foe of the Chief Justice.”

“We still hear the call to oust the Chief Justice, and to a certain extent, the other appointees of the former President… We view the populist move for the ouster as mob-inspired and… with some reservations, as… extraconstitutional.”

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, the workshop’s guest, said the conflict between Mr. Aquino and Corona revealed how strongly the executive, legislative and judicial branches had asserted their independence, instead of resorting to ways that would lead to collaboration.

But Morales, a retired associate justice of the Supreme Court, said protecting the independence of the three branches should also be healthy for the criminal justice system.

“The pitting together of the five pillars of criminal justice system actually operates as an efficient system of checks and balance. Each pillar is equally accountable to one another as all of them are answerable to the people who repose their trust in the system,” she said.

Morales referred to the community, law enforcement agencies, the counseling services provided by the Department of Justice and the Public Attorney’s Office, the trial courts and the penal and correctional system.

“We should realize… that just as a magnificent building stands tall through its supporting columns that are linked together by an elaborate network of beams and trusses, the entire criminal justice system [stands] upon pillars that are linked to one another,” she said.

“The justice system is not just as strong as the weakest pillar, it draws its strength from the connection among the five pillars … It is lamentable that we seem to lack a concrete institutional framework where all pillars can operate like a system of interlocking gears and wheels to move forward,” she added.

Morales said the independence of the pillars should not be viewed in such a manner as to isolate one from the other.

Beating corruption is the true enemy, she said

“We have heard many disturbing reports of corruption, abuse or incompetence by members of the different pillars of the justice system and these reports may unduly result in the erosion of trust in the system. Unless we address these, questions about the integrity of the system will haunt us.”