All that crap about judicial independence
Today is what we in the industry would call a great day for journalists because of so many news stories to tackle. Our big breaking story is that finally, after many denials from President Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte that he was behind the ouster of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, in a press briefing at the Davao International Airport before leaving for the Boao Forum in Hainan, China, yesterday afternoon, Pres. Duterte declared: "I am now your enemy. You have to be out of the Supreme Court!" With that statement, one can say that the fate of Sereno is sealed.
To those who demand for the integrity and independence of the Judiciary, first of all, many of you are against Pres. Duterte and yellow blood flows inside your veins. I'll have you know that your idol, former president Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III opened the proverbial Pandora's Box to exact the Aquino family's vengeance on former chief justice Renato Corona because his Supreme Court issued an en banc decision declaring the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) of former president Corazon "Tita Cory" Aquino as unconstitutional!
During those years, Mrs. Aquino could not make a mistake or if she did, her yellow cult followers kept their mouths shut even if the SDO was going to benefit only the Aquino family to be spared from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. I dare say that this was the beginning of the downfall of the Aquino political family because so many people lost their hard-earned land to so-called landless peasants, many of whom were allies of the Communist Party of the Philippines. My mother's side, the Segura Family lost 300 hectares in Catigbian, Bohol.
Worse was when the large tracts of Hacienda Luisita had to be used for the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, and because it was at the height of the Aquino political power, they were paid billions for the use of that land, while so many people whose lands were taken as road-right-of-way have not even been paid 20 years after the land was taken from them. With the declaration by the SC that the SDO was unconstitutional, the farmers of Hacienda Luisita who are the real owners of this land demanded that they be refunded the money paid to the Aquinos. That's when the die was cast and Corona's fate was sealed.
What was worse for the taxpayer was when PNoy dangled the Disbursement Acceleration Program and Priority Development Assistance Fund to the congressmen and senators who booted out poor Corona. So please, you yellows out there who genuflect before the Aquino politicians, don't give me the crap about Judicial independence because if PNoy respected the decision of the SC on the SDO, the Judiciary would still maintain its independence over the Executive and Legislative Branch of the Philippine government!
At this point, I hope that while the SC is in session in Baguio City, they should decide on the quo warranto case filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida in order to spare the nation of another impeachment circus, which we all abhorred during the trial of Corona. Indeed, the drama is over and we can safely say that Sereno is on her way out of the SC.
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We never knew that former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo made a strong move to save Boracay from a worsening environmental disaster, when she issued on May 2006 through then DENR secretary Angelo Reyes Proclamation no. 1064, which was based on the 1936 Public Land Act and a Presidential Decree by Marcos in 1975, PD no. 705 classifying Boracay's 1,028 hectares as "Forestland and Agricultural Land". This move was supported by the SC who explained that for a land to be "alienable," or subject to private ownership, the state must declare it as such.
But in the case of Boracay, the SC pointed out, "no such proclamation, executive order, administrative action, report, statute, or certification was presented to the SC. No wonder Pres. Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte declared Boracay as an agricultural land because he is backed by a presidential proclamation and a decision by the SC. So should Boracay Island become a land reform zone? I'm sure this will be the subject of a lively debate. We will tackle this issue tomorrow.
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