CJ Corona is damaged whatever happens

The Chief Justice is in a pretty hopeless situation. Whatever happens, he is damaged. His reputation will be further torn into shreds as the impeachment hearing progresses and will, thus, be unable to lead the Supreme Court in a way that a respected Chief Justice could. Even now, serious accusations of impropriety are being presented. Worse, his wife, who also served in government, is going to be dragged into the melee.

It doesn’t matter if the Senate throws out the impeachment charges in the end. Even a victory for the CJ in the Senate won’t erase the doubts on people’s minds about his character and the appropriateness of his continued leadership of the high court. The process, being a political one, does not delve into whether he is innocent or guilty, the way a court of law would.  

It doesn’t help that the Supreme Court as an institution is no longer held in as high esteem as it used to be. The flip flops on decisions make people imagine the worse. The court has simply lost the public’s respect. For the public, our judicial system has simply gone to the dogs, something people experience first hand when they have to deal with it.

It wasn’t always like that. Comparing four institutions, the SWS reports that “from Cory Aquino’s time up to part one of Arroyo’s time, the high court had been the most esteemed of the four institutions.  The replacement of the Supreme Court by the Senate began in part two of Arroyo’s time. As of December 2011, the Senate clearly has the best grade (a good net +44) among the four.  Bunched together with moderate grades are the Lower House (+27), the Cabinet (+22) and the Supreme Court (+21).” 

The low SC ranking is due to its relatively high dissatisfaction rate. Even then, the Supreme Court as an institution rated much better than CJ Corona. Goes to show the people are intelligent enough not to equate the Chief Justice with the Supreme Court itself as some lawyers have been trying to do.

In the most recent SWS poll, the Chief Justice had a negative rating. “Chief Justice Renato Corona, presently with a ‘poor’ net grade of -14, has not yet had any positive net rating in the seven quarters since he took office. His grade has ranged between a poor net -18 of June 2010, right after he became the chief, and a neutral zero in both June 2011 and September 2011.”

I want to believe that even the Chief Justice realizes he is not as important as the institution. Perhaps even now, he is wondering if the decision to fight it out and expose himself, his family and the Court to a public airing of dirty linen is the right thing to do. Sometimes, sacrificing self interest for the greater good of the institution is what is called for. Besides, there is no guarantee he will win his case given an election year and his poor public rating could make re-electionist senators think hard about the danger of being identified with him.

I suppose the Chief Justice is worried that if he quits now, his chief adversary in the court will take his place. He has to be told, as I had been told, that is not going to happen. In fact, they are looking for someone fresh and untainted by recent controversies in the court… someone who may not even be a current justice or even a judge. They are apparently taking the cue from the recent US experience when then President Bush appointed John Roberts Jr. Chief Justice, junking seniority or even prior membership in the court.

I suggested that they consider appointing a woman as the next Chief Justice. It seems we need our women to clean up the mess in our various institutions. And women have proven to be more principled fighters for justice and the common good. Past women justices in the Supreme Court have more than proven their mettle and have done the court proud. If P-Noy appoints a woman as chief justice, he will have the distinction of appointing the first one.

Asked if I had anyone in mind, I could only mention the name of Katrina Legarda off the top of my head. Okay, I am biased because she is a good friend, but more than that, I personally know she is someone with impeccable integrity, intelligence and the experience working with our judicial system for many years. She also has the kind of commitment to our judicial system that compelled her to do more than her share in making it work as it should. She has been active in the Judicial Academy, a Supreme Court project to improve the quality of our judges. She is also working with the police and training them in such areas as human rights and protection of women and children.

I don’t get to see Kat very often and I am sure she will protest that I am dragging her name in this column. But honestly, she is the one person I think who qualifies most because of the absence of conflict of interest. She has closed down her private law practice and is now keeping herself busy as a law professor and in the training of judges and police officers as well as her personal advocacy for the protection of women’s and children’s rights. She carries no baggage the way other suggested names do. Her family is independently wealthy and she herself has rather simple requirements in life (lives in Balic Balic, Sampaloc rather than Forbes). She is someone who can credibly clean up our judiciary.

There is, however, one important thing about Kat that may not make her too ideal for the appointing power. She is fiercely independent. She is, in fact, supporting the Chief Justice not because she likes or respects him, but more because she is genuinely worried that the Supreme Court as an institution could be under threat. But that’s Kat, someone who understands the system, knows what’s wrong with it and has the credibility to fix it.

Then again, it may be premature to talk of a replacement for CJ Corona. He really may be determined to fight it out. In which case, it would be interesting to see his Statement of Assets and Liabilities and how he will explain that under-priced Bellagio condo. It will also be interesting to have his wife’s tenure at the Camp John Hay board publicly scrutinized.

Speaking of Bellagio, a 300-square-meter penthouse unit he acquired from Megaworld in 2009 for P14.5 million, it is becoming apparently clear Megaworld gave the CJ a rather substantial discount. That could already be interpreted as something else, given that Megaworld must have pending cases in the high court. From real estate professionals, I found out that the cost should be in the range of P70,000 per sqm to about P90,000 per square meter. At 300sqm ...that unit should cost between P21 million to around P27 million… not P14.5 million.

There are those who say there is nothing wrong if Megaworld, out of the goodness of Andrew Tan’s heart, gave the CJ a hefty discount. That this view came from someone I knew as a friend of my late sister from way back and respected as a fellow journalist floored me. On this matter, I share the view expressed by Raissa Robles, another fellow journalist who wrote these paragraphs in her blog.

“Perhaps I’m being idealistic in my expectations of how a Chief Justice ought to behave. I recall my late lawyer-father – who used to teach Legal Ethics at the University of the Philippines College of Law – narrating how, in the US, when one lawyer was appointed Chief Justice of the US Federal Court, he took to dining alone or with his family in public. He was trying to avoid conflict of interest situations.

“I’m sure nearly every lawyer is familiar with the saying: Caesar’s wife must be above reproach. In the case of Chief Justice Corona, did his personal transactions raise any conflict of interest issues? Did he get favorable treatment due to his position, or treatment that is not otherwise accorded ordinary citizens?”

And so the drama unfolds next week at the Senate. Hopefully what happens next will do this nation some good.

New password

This is from Artemio Tipon.

A woman was helping her husband set up his computer. The computer  advised him that he would now need to enter a password. The husband figured he would try for the shock effect to get his wife’s attention. So, he stated each letter out loud as he typed: P...E...N...I...S

His wife fell off her chair laughing when the computer replied: PASSWORD REJECTED. NOT LONG ENOUGH

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. He is also on Twitter @boochanco