SC asked to respect separation of powers

MANILA, Philippines - A senior administration lawmaker yesterday suggested to the Supreme Court to respect the separation of powers of the three branches of government to avoid flip-flopping on its decisions.

Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. was commenting on the pronouncement of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno that the SC is undertaking measures to speed up the resolution of cases, including making sure the decisions are consistent with previous rulings of the high court.

Barzaga said there was nothing new in Sereno’s pronouncements, even as he cited a case of alleged flip-flopping by the SC in its 2013 decision declaring the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel of lawmakers as unconstitutional.

He said previous SC decisions on the PDAF in 2004, and the Countrywide Development Fund (CDF) – the old name of the pork barrel fund – in 1994 declared the congressional allocation as constitutional.

Barzaga said the Chief Justice’s statement was a “categorical admission that the Sereno court, like the Corona court, is guilty of flip-flopping.”

“Basic is the rule that when the SC is confronted with the issue of constitutionality of an act made by the legislature or the executive, the SC as much as possible should exercise judicial restraint out of respect to a separate but co-equal branch of government” Barzaga said.

“Such is the rule rooted in our tripartite form of government. When the SC declares an act of the president or legislature as unconstitutional, it substitutes its wisdom to the wisdom of the president and legislature, practically telling them ‘you are ignorant of the law and the Constitution’,” he said.

Barzaga said the 2013 decision of the SC on the PDAF also practically told the previous magistrates that they were wrong.

Barzaga, a lawyer, said every law student knows the basic rule of stare decisis or adherence to precedents.

Sereno said SC justices in the new system would check a decision vis-à-vis previous rulings on related or similar cases to determine if there are inconsistencies.

“This way, we will be able to stabilize jurisprudence,” she said.

Sereno has distinguished flip-flopping from mere “abandoning of doctrines as a corrective act directed towards a more just result.”

Prior to Sereno’s appointment as chief justice in 2012, the SC had been criticized for flip-flopping on several cases.