An imperfect High Court

“The judiciary, of course, is not perfect or omniscient. It can make, and it has made, mistakes. But mistaken or not, the court must be obeyed. But the judiciary has no guns to implement its orders. Thus, if every person is free to obey only what he or she considers a correct decision or order of the court, we can have chaos.”

So said the noted constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas in defending the Supreme Court’s now- inoperative temporary restraining order on the Justice Department’s travel ban against prisoner Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Fr. Bernas’ opinion that Filipinos  have no  choice but to bow to the highest court in the land when it drives the nation down a dangerous road sounds patently legalistic.

For many people, in the extraordinary case of running after  Arroyo, the executive department through Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was just being as shrewd  in closing off a possible exit for  the ex-president and Pampanga congresswoman.

Legal nitpicking would have the High Court force their decisions down the public’s throats. But why should the court be exempt from legitimate resistance by an executive branch supported by a discerning public who see the  High Court’s judgment as falling short of  justice?

Legal eagles and the SC justices should  remember:  1986 Edsa People Power   was a repudiation of an administration  that had lost its moral ascendancy by committing systematic poll fraud.

Edsa Dos in 2001 was the people’s rejection of  the Senate-turned-impeachment-court’s decision not to open an envelope believed to contain damning evidence against then president Joseph Estrada.

There are people who fault Secretary De Lima for defying the High Court’s order.

(In fact, she did not, since the order was  inoperative with Arroyo having failed to appoint, as the court mandated, a legal representative to receive subpoenas, orders and other legal processes on their behalf while she and her husband Jose Miguel are abroad).

De Lima was just being thorough in  her job.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, the incoming president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, acknowledged the complexity when he said  last Monday that what is going on in the country “is not just a question about a person, former president GMA.

“It’s a question of evaluating her situation… in the context of what these interpretations and recommendations from the Supreme Court, from the Regional Trial Court, or even from the Department of Justice and from many other people mean, because the balance between the individual good and the common good should be sought.”

While De Lima’s defiance appears moot and academic for now, the judiciary should be on its toes.

The public is  ready to support a principled  defiance of its decisions  and may just as readily file an impeachment complaint against justices they deem unworthy.