Yearender: Supreme Court gets cheers, jeers in 2008

Supreme Court decisions during the past year ranged from the highly political to the popular and environment and gender-friendly.

Television host Willie Revillame and the Pandacan oil depot figured prominently in two decisions of the Supreme Court in 2008.

During the year, the SC also acted on alleged anomalies within the Court of Appeals and dismissed from service a CA justice following alleged irregularities in deciding the Meralco board election case.

The High Court also ruled that questions on the national broadband network contract that the Senate had wanted to ask a Cabinet official were covered by executive privilege.

In 2008, the SC also ruled that one Jennifer Cagandahan could change her name to “Jeff Cagandahan,” and her gender from female to male.

On Jan. 29, the SC affirmed the authority of the Department of Justice to conduct a preliminary investigation into the “Wowowee” noontime game show stampede at the ULTRA stadium in Pasig. Revillame was cleared of any liability in the incident. However, the DOJ recommended the filing of charges before the Pasig Regional Trial Court against 17 others, including executives of television station ABS-CBN, for the 2006 stampede that killed 74 people.

In February, the SC ordered the removal of the 36-hectare oil depot in Pandacan, Manila and ordered Chevron Philippines Inc., Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. to relocate their storage facilities.

The Court also ordered the Office of the Manila Mayor to enforce City Ordinance No. 8027 directing the removal of the depot from Pandacan. The ordinance reclassified portions of the districts of Pandacan and Sta. Ana from industrial to commercial and directed certain business owners and operators, including Chevron, Petron and Shell, to cease and desist from operating their depot facilities.

The SC directed the Manila mayor to oversee the relocation and transfer out of the Pandacan depots in coordination with the appropriate agencies and other parties involved.

The Presiding Judge of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 39 was ordered to monitor the strict enforcement of the SC resolution.

“Essentially, the oil companies are fighting for their right to property,” read the SC order.

“They allege that they stand to lose billions of pesos if forced [to] relocate. However, based on the hierarchy of constitutionally protected rights, the right to life enjoys precedence over the right to property.

“The reason is obvious: life is irreplaceable, property is not. When the state or (local government unit) LGU’s exercise of police power clashes with a few individuals’ right to property, the former should prevail.”

The SC started the year with a firm commitment to preserve the environment with the creation of 117 environmental courts to expedite the resolution of all pending environment-related cases.

Out of the 117 environmental courts, the SC designated 45 lower courts as Forestry Courts and 48 first-level courts and 24 second-level trial courts to handle all kinds of environmental cases, including violations of Republic Act 8550 or the Fisheries Code and Republic Act 7586, or the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992.

On March 13, the SC settled the election controversy between Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Miguel Zubiri, and ruled that the Senate Electoral Tribunal is the proper venue to challenge Zubiri’s poll victory.

The SC said Pimentel has the burden of establishing that the certificates of canvass gathered in Maguindanao were manufactured.

On March 25, the SC ruled that the Senate cannot order the arrest for contempt of former National Economic and Development Authority director Romulo Neri for refusing to answer three questions on the controversial $329-million ZTE national broadband network project as these are covered by executive privilege.

On Sept. 4, the SC, by a vote of 9-6, denied the Senate’s motion for reconsideration and ruled with finality that the three questions being asked of Neri were indeed covered by the mantle of executive privilege.

“Its purpose, among others, is to assure that the nation will receive the benefit of candid, objective and untrammeled communication between the President and her advisers in the process of shaping or forming policies and arriving at decisions in the exercise of the functions of the presidency under the Constitution,” read the SC decision.

Last June, the SC dismissed the petition of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV to allow him to attend sessions and hearings at the Senate.

“The assertion is unavailing,” read the SC decision.

“The case against petitioner is not administrative in nature. And there is no ‘prior term’ to speak of. In a plethora of cases, the Court categorically held that the doctrine of condonation does not apply to criminal cases.

“Election, or more precisely, re-election to office, does not obliterate a criminal charge. Petitioner’s electoral victory only signifies pertinently that when the voters elected him to the Senate, ‘they did so with full awareness of the limitations on his freedom of action and with the knowledge that he could achieve only such legislative results which he could accomplish within the confines of prison.’”

The SC said the performance of legitimate and even essential duties by public officers has never been an excuse to free a person validly in prison.

“The accused-appellant asserts that the duty to legislate ranks highest in the hierarchy of government.

“The accused-appellant is only one of 250 members of the House of Representatives, not to mention the 24 members of the Senate, charged with the duties of legislation.”

Last July, the SC ordered the dismissal of all petitions against the implementation of the ZTE deal on grounds of “mootness.”

On July 16, the SC rejected the petition of the House of Representatives to be furnished with copies of the offers of the Philippine and Japanese governments on the negotiations for the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement.

“Diplomatic negotiations have been recognized as privileged in this jurisdiction and the reasons proffered by petitioners have not persuaded the Court,” read the SC decision.

On Sept. 9, the SC ordered the dismissal of CA Justice Vicente Roxas and imposed sanctions on three other justices for alleged irregularities in the handling of the Meralco board election case.

Roxas was found to have violated the canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct, grave misconduct, dishonesty, undue interest and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

Ordered suspended for two months without pay was Associate Justice Jose Sabio Jr. who was found guilty of simple misconduct and conduct unbecoming a justice of the CA, with a stern warning that a repetition of the same or similar acts will warrant a more severe penalty.

The SC “severely reprimanded” CA Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez Jr. “for his failure to act promptly and decisively” to avert the incidents that damaged the image of the CA. He was warned that a repetition of the same or similar acts will warrant “a more severe penalty.”

Also reprimanded was Justice Bienvenido Reyes Jr. who was found guilty of simple misconduct with mitigating circumstance. Admonished was Justice Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal, who was found guilty of conduct unbecoming a justice of the CA.

Last Sept. 12, the SC affirmed the Jan. 12, 2005 decision of the Laguna Regional Trial Court granting the petition for correction of entry in the birth certificate of Jennifer Cagandahan.

Jennifer, who was diagnosed as having Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, was allowed by the Laguna RTC to change her name to “Jeff Cagandahan” and her gender from female to male.

On Oct. 8, the SC ruled that the state owns the island-resort of Boracay in Aklan, and that resort owners and other private claimants do not have the right to apply for titles to the land they have been occupying.

“The continued possession and considerable investment of private claimants do not automatically give them a vested right in Boracay. Nor do these give them a right to apply for a title to the land they are presently occupying,” read the SC decision.

“This Court is constitutionally bound to decide cases based on the evidence presented and the laws applicable. As the law and jurisprudence stand, private claimants are ineligible to apply for a judicial confirmation of title over their occupied portions in Boracay even with their continued possession and considerable investment in the land.”

On Oct. 14, the SC declared that the agreement on ancestral domain that would have granted large tracts of territory to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was unconstitutional.

“Not only its specific provisions but the very concept underlying them, namely, the associative relationship envisioned between the GRP and the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), are unconstitutional, for the concept presupposes that the associated entity is a state and implies that the same is on its way to independence,” read the SC decision.

“Upholding such an act would amount to authorizing a usurpation of the constituent powers vested only in Congress, a Constitutional Convention, or the people themselves through the process of initiative, for the only way that the Executive can ensure the outcome of the amendment process is through an undue influence or interference with that process.”

On Nov. 3, the SC struck down as unconstitutional sections of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 requiring drug testing for candidates for national and local posts and those facing criminal charges punishable of more than six years imprisonment.

“It is basic that if a law or an administrative rule violates any norm of the Constitution, that issuance is null and void and has no effect,” read the SC decision.

“The Constitution is the basic law to which all laws must conform; no act shall be valid it if conflicts with the Constitution.”

The SC said if Congress has no power to impose additional qualifications for candidates, the same can also be said of the Comelec.

“The right of a citizen in the democratic process of election should not be defeated by unwarranted impositions of requirement not otherwise specified in the Constitution,” read the SC decision.

On Dec. 18, the SC ordered the Metro Manila Development Authority and other government agencies to clean up Manila Bay and revive its pristine waters.

“In light of the ongoing environmental degradation, the Court wishes to emphasize the extreme necessity for all concerned executive departments and agencies to immediately act and discharge their respective official duties and obligations,” read the SC decision.

“Indeed, time is of the essence; hence, there is a need to set timetables for the performance and completion of the tasks, some of them as defined for them by law and the nature of their respective offices and mandates.”