Marquez blames Aquino gov’t for encouraging people to defy court orders
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—Supreme Court Spokesman and Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez on Wednesday accused the Aquino government of emboldening the public to defy the courts.
Speaking during the Supreme Court’s annual media forum in Baguio City, Marquez said the judiciary is bearing the brunt of the impeachment trial and the public attacks of President Benigno Aquino III against Chief Justice Renato Corona.
“The dilemma lies not in the effect that these public attacks have on the Chief Justice himself; the dilemma lies in the fact that ultimately, it is the institution itself—the Judiciary—which will bear the brunt of these assaults,” Marquez said.
Aside from the attacks against the Chief Justice, Marquez took note of the Executive Branch’s “habit” of invoking technicalities to evade compliance of court orders “even if compliance was still possible.”
Among those cited by Marquez include the Department of Finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) defiance of an order to stop collection of a 20-percent final withholding tax on the P35-billion worth of government’s Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates (PEACe bonds) in November last year despite a temporary restraining order (TRO) handed down by the high court; the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) and Aquino administration’s refusal to honor a TRO on DOJ watch-list orders against former first couple Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Mike Arroyo also last November; and the DoJ’s defiance of a Manila trial court judge’s order for the inspection of the vehicle National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Deputy Director Reynaldo Esmeralda was riding in when he was supposedly ambushed on Feb. 21 this year.
Also, Marquez took note of the defiance of St. Theresa’s College High School Cebu to follow a trial court order allowing certain students to march for graduation. The students were barred from attending the graduation rites after they posted in a social networking site their photos wearing bikini; SM Baguio’s refusal to receive the copy of a trial court-issued Temporary Environmental Protection Order (TEPO) to stop the mall from cutting down 182 trees for its expansion project; and, in Eastern Samar, a governor’s defiance of a trial court-issued TRO preventing him from using his administration’s annual budget.
“With these unfortunate events, it is a relevant question now to ask: what happens when defiance of Court orders becomes the norm?” Marquez said.
Marquez said these acts of defiance undermined public confidence in the independent Judiciary.
“The problem when the preconditions of independence and public confidence are not met is that the Judiciary loses its capacity to uphold the rule of law. The most egregious symptom of this is the current wave of defiance against court orders intended to protect human rights,” he said.
“Unfortunately, today, the administration’s deliberate dismantling of the public confidence that the Court has so meticulously built over the decades has emboldened private individuals to defy court rulings and render meaningless the rule of law,” he added.
