SC dismissal of petitions vs GMA ‘vindication of good governance’

Malacañang hailed yesterday the Supreme Court’s back-to-back dismissal of two separate petitions lodged by opposition candidates against the Arroyo administration as a victory for good governance.

"We welcome the Supreme Court ruling as a vindication of good governance," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

"We hope that the High Court’s ruling would serve as a wake-up call for the opposition to shift their campaign to a higher plane instead of engaging in the politics of obstruction and harassment," Bunye cited.

In a six-page resolution handed down on Wednesday, the Court en banc threw out a petition seeking to declare Mrs. Arroyo resigned or on official leave upon filing of her certificate of candidacy. On the same day, it also junked a petition seeking full disclosure of the compromise agreement between the government and Maynilad Water Services Inc.

The high court argued that there was no Constitutional basis to compel the President to resign or go on leave because of her decision to run in an election.

On the Maynilad deal, the court said the petition has no basis as no order has been issued yet prohibiting the public disclosure of the deal.

Bunye said that the Palace is hoping the SC decisions would put an end to "nuisance suits" and "harassment cases" being filed against Mrs. Arroyo.

He insisted that the charges leveled one after the other against the President have no legal basis. The Arroyo administration, he stressed, has been very careful in the use of government funds and had faithfully complied with existing election rules and regulations.

Mrs. Arroyo earlier said she would rather "go to jail" than see ordinary Filipino families without any source of clean, potable water in the face of Maynilad’s failure to sustain the profitability of its operation in its franchise area. She also said she’d rather go on fulfilling her duties on governance like implementing the "universal health insurance coverage" and distributing Philhealth cards to indigent families than pay attention to the harassment suits filed against her.

Despite the SC’s ruling on the first petition, however, opposition senatorial candidates Ma. Elisa "Boots" Anson Roa and Amina Rasul-Bernardo said it was still a moral victory for the opposition since it exposed to the public the "blatant misuse" of government resources by the administration.

In a joint statement, Anson-Roa and Rasul-Bernardo said the SC virtually allowed the President to use government resources to ensure her a second term in the coming elections.

Anson-Roa said the issue they raised subsequently "set off the filing of similar cases against misuse of public funds and government resources for partisan politics."

"Whether or not the President has the right to splurge government funds during the campaign period remains a valid and compelling issue that should be resolved by the judiciary," Anson-Roa said.

She called on government workers to prevent attempts by the Palace to further use public funds and resources for Mrs. Arroyo’s campaign.

The FPJ Lawyers for Good Governance, which assisted in filing the petition, said the SC has misread the plea as an electioneering case, which is clearly under the jurisdiction of the Commission on Elections. — With Paolo Romero