While she isn’t the most popular senator right now, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago did have a point when she warned President Benigno Aquino III not to appoint political allies to the post of Chief Justice.
Santiago, whose appointment at the International Criminal Court is being hounded by groups who voiced displeasure over her vote to acquit former chief justice Renato Corona, made practical sense when she said the appointment of either Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares as the nation’s chief magistrate would draw a lot of flak from even the President’s staunchest of allies.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales would have to refuse P-Noy’s offer of the CJ post. She already declared publicly that she isn’t interested.
If the Aquino administration just wants the effective prosecution and conviction of former president r Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, then all the President had to do is defer to the selection process of the Judicial and Bar Council, the only agency capable of choosing the most qualified to sit as Chief Justice.
But let’s review the circumstances behind Corona’s appointment.
Despite the JBC’s best intentions, Corona was appointed on the midnight hour by Arroyo even with a constitutional provision that bars the appointment of officials on the eve of the elections.
Such conditions are not present now that Corona is out of the picture.
The greater weight of appointing a chief magistrate whose integrity and credibility with the legal community and the public at large is unquestioned falls on the President’s shoulders.
Aquino has three months to decide.
Interest groups are already lobbying to the President to appoint this and that person. Even the left wing and Arroyo’s clique will join the bandwagon.
Arroyo’s camp will see this as crucial to sparing her the ignominy of being jailed like her predecessor, former president Joseph Estrada.
It’s imperative that the President appoint an outsider, someone who would not kowtow to any interest group especially the administration whose ouster of Corona raised fears, rightly or wrongly, of a dictatorship by the executive over its legislative and judicial siblings.
No political allies, please.
If the President is sincere about his campaign pledge of transparency, accountability and removing corruption in government, he should start in his own backyard.
He already failed to respond to Corona’s challenge to issue a waiver of secrecy of his bank accounts anyway.
It’s about time he makes his own statement on preserving the balance of power in government.