Presidents and the High Court
President Manuel L. Quezon and President Corazon C. Aquino, who died on this date in different years, can be sources of inspiration for the persons who are responsible for filling the vacant post of Supreme Court Chief Justice.
Quezon, who died 68 years ago in 1944, appointed the first all-Filipino members of the Supreme Court of the Philippines in 1935.
Under Quezon’s watch, membership in the court rose to 11: a Chief Justice and 10 associate justices who sat en banc or in a pair of five-man divisions.
The only Chief Justice that Quezon appointed was Jose Abad Santos, who filled the post in 1941 and even served as Acting President of the Philippines when Quezon chose exile in the United States during the Japanese Occupation.
(Among the associate justices Quezon appointed was Jose P. Laurel who would later become Chief Executive.)
In these two of Quezon’s judicial picks, we see the necessity for the JBC and President Benigno Aquino III to restrict their choice of Chief Justice to persons who are capable not only of interpreting the law but also of enforcing it (at least where the Chief Justice is also an executor and that is the entire judicial branch of government.)
At the very least we would like to see a Chief Justice who can make the judiciary more transparent, first of all by removing stumbling blocks to the disclosure of the net worths of the justices, since the High Court-wrought red tape surrounding disclosure looks, from where the layman sits (and the Constitution was to be understood easily by all and not by lawyers), grossly counter to the spirit of open government that enlivens our Charter.
President Corazon C. Aquino, who died three years ago in 2009 reorganized the membership of the Supreme Court after it was subjugated by the dictatorial government of the strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
The late president Aquino appointed men of excellence and independence to the post of Chief Justice.
Claudio Teehankee was an activist judge who resisted being co-opted by Malacañang during the martial law years.
Pedro Yap had refused to sign the 1973 Constitution that was a result of political chicanery.
Cebu’s very own Marcelo Fernan had actively demonstrated against strongman rule and took that respect for the tripartite government with him when he presided over the High Court.
Andres Narvasa established his probity and fitness for the highest court in the land by meticulously helping, as then general prosecutor, build evidence that pointed to the military (under Marcos) as the ones who asssassinated Benigno Aquino Jr. in 1983.
What is President Benigno Aquino III’s mother’s message to him and the JBC? Choose a man who can do every man justice, especially in times when the other branches of government are unjust.
