SC powers ‘immense and awesome’, says law expert

MANILA, Philippines – The powers of the Supreme Court are “immense and awesome” so much so that any attempt to limit them would mean either amending the Constitution or otherwise respecting it, said Fr. Ranhilio C. Aquino, chairman of Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy of the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) and Dean, Graduate School of Law, San Beda College.

“That power is immense, it is awesome but do not blame the justices, do not blame the judges. If you do not want that scope of power [then] rewrite the Constitution. But for as long as that provision is not rewritten, that is the scope of judicial review,” Aquino said in his lecture to women judges at the two-day convention at the Manila Hotel that started Wednesday, March 14, and ends Friday.

The Supreme Court’s power of Judicial review under Article VIII Section of the 1987 Constitution provides that “the judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law. Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice to settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government.”

The Supreme Court has been criticized for allegedly favoring former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo because 12 of  its15 Justices were her appointees, including Chief Justice Renato Corona who is in an impeachment trial.

Aquino explained that framers of the Constitution have a purpose for including such provision in the Charter.

“Nobody can be a judge of his own game and nobody can be a judge on the legitimacy of his own action…The President has vast access over the vast reservoir of governmental force and power…In order to legitimate the access of reservoir of power, the acts of the executive must be justified by law that he does not write and must be subject to judicial review that he does not control.”

“Executive oversight over legislative and judicial activity would constitute a perversion of the very concept of separation of power and render that particular branch all powerful, omnipotent and virtually impossible to deal with under a system of law,” Aquino said.