Angara cites judiciary’s role in maintaining balance between Palace, Congress

There is the need for an arbiter between the executive and legislative branches of government and that arbiter is the judiciary.

This is what Sen. Edgardo Angara said recently as he recognized the need for the judiciary to "aggressively" assert its role in determining what is within the bounds of the law regarding issues that have caused bitter fights between the executive and legislative branches of government.

Speaking before lawyers, civil society groups and journalists, Angara also cited the need for a fine and delicate "calibration" between liberty and prosperity.

He said the courts’ intervention must be aggressive and must consider immediacy and urgency in intervening between the acts of the executive branch and the acts of the legislature.

"I fully agree that the court must be always on maximum alert when the executive (branch) oversteps its bounds and violates our civil liberties. The court must be keenly vigilant and sensitive to violations of fundamental basic rights," he said.

On the other hand, "the legislature must be sensitive to the basic intuition of the people," he added.

Though he did not cite particular issues or instances of conflict between the executive and legislative branches, Angara may have been referring to the Palace’s issuance of Executive Order No. 464, barring government executives and police and military officials from attending congressional inquiries without the President’s approval, and Presidential Proclamation 1017, when President Arroyo declared a state of emergency following a foiled coup on Feb. 24.

The President said Proclamation 1017 was needed to thwart destabilization efforts that would have adversely affected the economy.

These two Palace issuances strained the relationship between the Palace and the Senate — strain that was exacerbated by Palace-sponsored calls for the abolition of the Senate.

Angara said at the same forum that Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban’s suggestion for the courts’ heightened scrutiny and deferential approach in matters of achieving liberty and prosperity is helpful and effective.

He said: "The courts must affirm the principle of accountability — which is very important in democracy — rather than hinder transparency and accountability to the people."

"We must insist that ‘bread’ and ‘freedom’ go together, that we need not give up one for the other," he said.

Angara said the issue of liberty and prosperity and the argument for safe judicial intervention is even more compelling now because of the alarming poverty rate.

According to the World Bank, almost half of the country’s 85 million people are living on less than $2 a day. "That is P110 a day," Angara said. "This, while the richest five percent of the country account for a third of the national income."

"On top of that, twenty-five percent of children aged zero to five are malnourished and almost the same percentage of children are underweight," Angara said, citing the World Bank report. "That means we are raising and rearing Filipinos who would grow up mentally and physically stunted. We must do something about this depressing reality."

"Certainly, it’s not the judiciary’s job alone to strike this balance between liberty and prosperity. It must be done by the entire nation — by the whole political community," he said.

As members of the legislature, lawmakers "must reflect the people’s choice of how much liberty we are prepared to sacrifice for economic growth, and conversely, how much economic growth we are willing to forgo each meal time so long as we are able to freely criticize our government and lambast our leaders," he added.

Angara also supported the first-ever Ten Outstanding Councilors Award (TOCA) to recognize their outstanding efforts and inspire public officials at the community level.

These awards were given in coordination with the Philippine Jaycees Inc.

"Councilors are the legislators that make the most impact on their individual communities," Angara said Thursday after the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement on the awards. "By recognizing their work, we inspire and motivate them, as well as the Sangguniang Bayan, to excel and perform beyond the ordinary. I challenge and inspire our councilors to become development-oriented."

During the awarding process, a body will select 10 out of the nation’s 17,000 councilors, who will be honored and set up as role-models for local lawmakers.

Each outstanding councilor will be awarded P100,000 worth of projects for his or her community. The funds for the awarded prizes will be taken from Angara’s community development fund.

Angara said the primary criterion for selecting the nations 10 top councilors is the quality of the ordinances he or she may have sponsored.