BERLIN—President Benigno Aquino III is seeking a “healthy compromise” with the Supreme Court to resolve the dispute over judicial review between his administration and the judiciary.
President Benigno Aquino III. AP FILE PHOTO
Speaking at a forum organized by Koerber Stiftung and Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business on Friday night, Mr. Aquino said he was looking to have a dialogue with the Supreme Court for the exploration of how the judiciary could exercise its power to provide check and balance without becoming “very strong and very powerful.”
Mr. Aquino said the power of judicial review should be used with “restraint,” but in the Philippines it had been “used too much.”
Not used during martial rule
The President has been sniping at the Supreme Court since it struck down his economic stimulus plan, the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), on July 1.
Last year, the court also struck down the pork barrel Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), after upholding it twice in the past.
Mr. Aquino has warned of a clash between the executive and the judiciary, threatening the Supremes with congressional intervention, a reference to impeachment.
At the forum on Friday night, Mr. Aquino distinguished between how judicial review was hardly used during martial law in the Philippines and how it was applied more often after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship.
Swing to the extreme
“It seems that we have swung from one end to the other extreme; where before they didn’t want to interfere [in any way], now, it seems, they feel compelled to interfere in anything and everything,” Mr. Aquino said.
“Normally, when you are in one position and you go to the extreme, if that initial position is wrong, the extreme normally is also wrong,” he said.
The President has said he is open to amending the Constitution to limit the power of judicial review.
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