Question of personal and collective privilege

(Delivered on August 23, 2010)

Mr. Speaker, Esteemed Colleagues,

CEBU, Philippines - The assassination of the character of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr. has already been reported in the nation’s media. What I will report to you today is how Cebuanos have received the news of the murder of Jun Davide’s honor.

Last Tuesday, August 17, Senate Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada in a privilege speech said that while he supports the creation of the Truth Commission, he disagrees with the choice of the chairman whom we in Cebu endearingly call Jun Davide.

Senator Estrada said the appointment “poses the greatest moral contradiction to the mission and mandate” of the Truth Commission, Jun Davide’s character, the senator said, is “no different from the very subject of the Truth Commission,” former president and now colleague Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The senator called her Davide’s best friend and then proceeded to call the son of Cebu a lot of names, which television news and newspaper accounts spread across the length and breadth of this island.

I went home last weekend, which I do every week to meet with constituents and feel the public pulse. As I flew to Cebu, I sensed already what they would say. Phone calls and e-mails to Manila said they were appalled and outraged by the fresh assault on our beloved “paesano.”

What I heard back home—in face-to-face meetings, interviews with local leaders, feedback from ordinary people in opinion sections of newspapers and radio talk shows—convinced me that I must share with you the anger and pain expressed by many Cebuanos.

They are incensed because the enemies of Jun Davide unleashed the same weapon of destruction in 2003 when they filed two complaints of impeachment, the second filed the day after the first complaint was dismissed against the then Supreme Court chief justice.

The alleged anomalies in disbursements and expenditures of the Judicial Development Fund or JDF were ostensibly the ground for the impeachment complaints.

Church leaders and other sectors, however, saw the complaints as “demolition plan” and a “relentless attack” against the Supreme Court, the highest tribunal of the land, aimed to take out its leader. The clergy of the Diocese of Sorsogon said the impeachment “reeks with political, selfish, and self-serving business interests.” Archbishop Oscar Cruz of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan named a more insidious motive: “to destabilize and tear the nation apart.”

On November 11, 2003, this House voted not to transmit to the Senate the articles of impeachment, in difference to the earlier Supreme Court decision that the second complaint was unconstitutional and apparently to the growing public opinion against Jun Davide’s ordeal.

Why did Cebuanos rage then in 2003 as they do now? They love Jun Davide because he brought honor and glory not only to Cebu and Cebuanos but also to this country. His record in public service, except for the questionable impeachment charges, spotlessly shines.

From his days as delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1971, as a fearless opposition member of the then Interim Batasang Pambansa (1978-1981), and his service to various Commissions (Constitutional Commission, Davide Commission on military coups and Adviser to the President on electoral reforms) and as chairman of the Commission on Elections and his long years in the Supreme Court, and as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations. They all attest to his integrity and dedication.

The large pile of awards heaped on Jun Davide includes the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 2003 (yes, the same year the impeachment complaints were filed) and in 2008 the Spirit of the U.N. award for “notable work in promoting spirituality and values.” He was named “Man of the Year” also in 2003 by the Philippine Daily Inquirer and “Filipino of the Year” in 2001 by the Philippine Free Press. In Cebu, Sun.Star, the largest circulated regional newspaper in the country, in 2002 named Jun Davide and Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, the Archbishop of Cebu, as the “Outstanding Leaders in Two Decades.”

Cebuanos are hurting because they have known Jun Davide for so long. He has been honored by schools, foundations, non-government organizations, business and church, local governments, civil society groups, and institutions here and abroad. What can be a more credible and vigorous testament to the basic integrity of the man?

Cebuanos definitely know him a lot better than those who would tarnish his image with charges that should have been filed, if there was a probable cause, after his retirement as Supreme Court chief justice in 2005. Yet in 2006 he was named presidential adviser on electoral reforms and in 2007 he accepted the United Nations ambassador’s post. He continues his service to his country and people, his enthusiasm undiminished and his acumen even sharpened with age.

Thus, President Noynoy Aquino, with his battlecry of change and choosing the right path, clearly appreciates Jun Davide’s worth as chairman of the Truth Commission. After Senator Estrada’s privilege speech, the President promptly defended his choice, saying he will stand by the man whose help his mother Corazon Aquino also tapped when she was president. The President’s open and unflinching support for Jun Davide had gladdened the Cebuanos.

Cebuanos ask Jun Davide’s critics to respect the decision of President Noy and to give Jun Davide the chance to show independence of mind, unfettered by friendship or sentiment, in searching for the truth about unresolved controversies that from the past continue to hound the nation.

The nation may well remember how Jun Davide, presiding over the impeachment trial of then President Joseph Estrada in 2000, steered the proceedings with firmness, fairness, and aplomb. The same president Joseph Estrada appointed him in 1998 as the 20th chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Cebuanos—and this humble representative from the First district of the City of Cebu—truly believe that Jun Davide cannot be less just and efficient in leading the Truth Commission than he was in that impeachment trial.

Thank you Mr. Speaker and esteemed colleagues.