President Benigno Aquino III . INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court should not be allowed to meddle too much, President Benigno Aquino III said Thursday in an interview over the radio.
Aquino reiterated that his openness to amending the Constitution was brought about by the issue of judicial overreach.
“Bukas ba ako sa Charter change? Talagang dito sa usapin sa DAP [Disbursement Acceleration Program]…meron mga kasamahan sa Kongreso…meron ding mga miyembro ng hudikatura, lalo na iyong mga retired na nagsasabi iyong tinatawag na judicial reach (Am I open to Charter change? With regards to DAP…there are people from Congress, members of the judiciary, especially those retired, talking about judicial reach),” Aquino said in an exclusive interview with Bombo Radyo.
The President pointed out that during the term of former President Ferdinand Marcos, the Supreme Court did not want to rule on the issue of martial law because it was a political concern.
“Ano ba iyong judicial reach? Noong panahon kasi ng martial law kapag may nagtanong: Tama ba ang martial law? Idinulog sa Supreme Court. Ang sinasabi ng Korte Suprema: ‘political question, hindi namin pwedeng pakialamanan iyan,’” he said.
(What is judicial reach? During the time of martial law when someone asked: Is martial law lawful? They raise the question to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court says: ‘that is a political question, we can’t comment on that.)
“Ito pumunta sa kabilang dulo lahat pinapakialaman (Now, the situation has been reversed, they’re getting involved in everything),” he said.
“Yung judicial reach dapat yata lagyan ng hangganan (Judicial reach should perhaps have a limit),” Aquino said.
The President again assailed the SC decision declaring the DAP partly unconstitutional, saying the high court was wrong for not presuming him and other officials innocent.
“Doon sa paragraph na iyon [ng decision] e ako raw, si Secretary Abad, other implementors, authors, kailangan patunayan namin iyong innocence namin at presumed kaming guilty. Sa Article 3 kasi ng Bill of Rights, ‘presumed innocent until proven guilty,’ he said.
(In one paragraph of the decision, it said that I, Secretary Abad, other implementors and authors should prove our innocence and we are presumed guilty. But in Article 3 of the Bill of Rights, we should be ‘presumed innocent until proven guilty.’)
“Mukhang sumobra naman yata doon sa walang pakialam lahat pinapakialamanan at iyong pagpapakialam nila parang nagiging mahirap lalong patakbuhin itong gobyernong ito,” Aquino said.
(It seems excessive now, from not caring to meddling in everything and that meddling seems to make running this government difficult.)
However, near the end of the interview, Aquino said he respects the work of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
“Mabigat ang tungkulin. Maliwanag na matatagalan siya bilang—matagal ang kanyang pagbubuhat ’nung responsibilidad na ayusin ’yung buong Hudikatura,” he said, referring to the fact that Sereno will be Chief Justice until 2030.
(Her responsibility is huge. It is clear that she will have to carry the responsibility of fixing the Judiciary for quite a long time.)