The ‘Powerful Law Firm’ and the ‘Precedent Bank’
November 20, 2002 | 12:00am
Andrew Hamilton said that "Power may justly be compared to a great river; while kept within its bounds it is both beautiful and useful, but when it overflows its banks, it is then too impetuous to be stemmed; it bears down all before it, and brings destruction and desolation wherever it comes."
In every presidential leadership that I have experienced as a private citizen and as a government official, I have run smack into the awesome powers of the presidency, primordially as exercised by one person, those of the judiciary exercised collegially, and the legislature also exercised collegially even though noisily. We all know that the great test of all these officials in all these three co-equal and coordinate but separate branches of our government is how they live and behave, how they react, how they lead, and how they decide on any particular issue brought before them for resolution and decision, being powerful officials with some basic tasks to undertake. The lives of the citizens, the well-being of men, the life or death of a man or of a business can become so dependent on one person or a collegial body that the essence and the scent of money can become an inducement to a favored decision.
Our lives have been afflicted by the "scams" thrown at us as daily fare, or have sashayed into our private lives as unwanted mice do: ugly, demoralizing, in fact, abhorrent and detestable. And not one, not five, not a dozen only, but a great deal have remained unsolved and unresolved by some of the most despicable of our irresolute leaders possibly because the material consideration has not come through, whether in the form of straight cold cash, remittances to offshore bank accounts, houses, penthouses, and plush condominiums in some of the best resort places in the US, Europe or elsewhere, like Boca Raton in Florida, Las Vegas in Nevada, etc.
These men and women have become demented and irrational. Remember what Will and Ariel Durant said: "Power dements even more than it corrupts, lowering the guard of foresight, and raising the haste of action." Patriotism, public service, and public interest and the public good have been cast out; greed and lust have replaced the former; and these men and women, have, at the very least, become irrational. The great Thomas Jefferson had so rightly said: "I have never been able to conceive how any irrational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power to the others."
And so it has come to pass that our beloved country, the Philippines, known the world over for her most valuable human resource, the Filipino, has become a nation possibly of irrational leaders in this sense. Much of what they say, in supposedly excellent rhetoric, sting the ears of the citizenry as literary masterpieces full of meaningless prose that have become useless, are even downright lies proceeding from minds that have become "irrational" and "demented" by ambition and greed.
A student on his or her first year at law school gets an introduction to some of the oddest words which later become everyday fare – words like stare decisis, res judicata, etc. As a law student, I became fascinated with these words, and at the Law, Science and Policy class of the late great Yale Law professor emeritus Myres McDougal (who had a special admiration for the Filipino), we became familiar with a great many more. Enshrined in the judicial systems of the world is a whole wealth of judicial decisions that have become part of the jurisprudential law of the land – powerful landmark decisions that have been enunciated by the court of last resort of the particular country – in the case of the Philippines, the Supreme Court of the land. God has entrusted upon some of what are supposed to be the most brilliant judicial practitioners of the country that enlightened presumption that they have that special gift of independence of mind, that God-given and invaluable essence of integrity of the spirit, that total dedication to truth and justice that nothing can destroy no matter how high the material price.
When one gets appointed to the Supreme Court of the Philippines, I would like to think that this is no ordinary bestowal of responsibility, it is a tap on the shoulders by an enlightened sword, not just of the appointive power which is the presidency, but an ordination of shining knighthood, and the appointee becomes henceforth every citizen’s knight in shining armor, every citizen’s fighter for what is right, what is true, what is moral and what is just. When he pens his signature to a Supreme Court decision, as he performs his responsibilities, and studies the particular issues within the jurisdiction of this supreme body, there is absolutely no other consideration that should shape his decision but that emanating from the shining sword that tapped his shoulders, gave him the strength of a David in the face of all the Goliaths of this world, and made him the shining knight for truth and justice, Should he have any consideration other than this, he would not only have cut up the heart of the Filipino, but trampled upon the Divine Power who allowed his elevation to the Supreme Court to happen. The Supreme Court is the court of last resort, and its decisions are sacred enunciations and resolutions that, pursuant to the principle of stare decisis become res judicata to all of us law-abiding citizens, become a part of what is the treasury of the jurisprudential law of the land, the invaluable judicial precedents that are now, within the context of Philippine information technology, a part of the "Precedent Bank" of the Philippines. All these to prevail until overturned in the future by the same tribunal for reasons that may be dictated by the passage of time according to every Supreme Court Associate Justice’s pursuit of the order of the shining sword that made him the citizen’s knight of undiluted truth and justice.
A law firm that is perceived to be extremely strong and influential in relation to the presidential office and its attachments, and the judiciary, bears not only constant and persistent vigilance from a citizenry that has been aroused twice in the past to seek governance with integrity, without the filth and slush of what we call "dirty politics," and the shameful extravagance in the personal lifestyle of the country’s leadership. The existence of such a law firm can be one of the primordial deterrents to the promulgation of decisions and opinions of quasi-judicial bodies, of executive agencies, of project management teams and review committees the length and stretch of the bureaucracy, that can be prone to take orders from above, of course, even of judicial functionaries. The effect on opinions and resolutions, on obiter dicta, on project execution and implementation involving committee review resolutions, can be deep, widespread and far-reaching. Where appointees are beholden to any one or any group of people, where appointees are former partners or associates of a law firm, where functionaries in both judicial and executive agencies owe their assumption of power to ties with a very active and influential law firm functioning with even greater momentum and effectivity, there is every reason for the Filipino citizen to get severely disappointed, in fact, disgusted with the way adjudications will be undertaken and the possible obstruction to the rendering of undiluted justice. This is how an "unseen hand" so-called, or what are now called "the Barbarians" can defeat what the shining sword ordained – undiluted truth and justice for the Philippine citizenry.
The soul of our judicial system, the very heart of the functioning of our executive bureaucracy will be stained. The data bank of judicial precedents within our modern digital and information society will be tainted with the ugliness of bias, injustice and filth. This, by the way, is the connection between the "powerful law firm" and the "precedent bank" that is still evolving. Thomas Paine said: "No unusual influence should be given to any one group of individuals performing an indiscreet purpose. They will surely abuse it."
In every presidential leadership that I have experienced as a private citizen and as a government official, I have run smack into the awesome powers of the presidency, primordially as exercised by one person, those of the judiciary exercised collegially, and the legislature also exercised collegially even though noisily. We all know that the great test of all these officials in all these three co-equal and coordinate but separate branches of our government is how they live and behave, how they react, how they lead, and how they decide on any particular issue brought before them for resolution and decision, being powerful officials with some basic tasks to undertake. The lives of the citizens, the well-being of men, the life or death of a man or of a business can become so dependent on one person or a collegial body that the essence and the scent of money can become an inducement to a favored decision.
Our lives have been afflicted by the "scams" thrown at us as daily fare, or have sashayed into our private lives as unwanted mice do: ugly, demoralizing, in fact, abhorrent and detestable. And not one, not five, not a dozen only, but a great deal have remained unsolved and unresolved by some of the most despicable of our irresolute leaders possibly because the material consideration has not come through, whether in the form of straight cold cash, remittances to offshore bank accounts, houses, penthouses, and plush condominiums in some of the best resort places in the US, Europe or elsewhere, like Boca Raton in Florida, Las Vegas in Nevada, etc.
These men and women have become demented and irrational. Remember what Will and Ariel Durant said: "Power dements even more than it corrupts, lowering the guard of foresight, and raising the haste of action." Patriotism, public service, and public interest and the public good have been cast out; greed and lust have replaced the former; and these men and women, have, at the very least, become irrational. The great Thomas Jefferson had so rightly said: "I have never been able to conceive how any irrational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power to the others."
And so it has come to pass that our beloved country, the Philippines, known the world over for her most valuable human resource, the Filipino, has become a nation possibly of irrational leaders in this sense. Much of what they say, in supposedly excellent rhetoric, sting the ears of the citizenry as literary masterpieces full of meaningless prose that have become useless, are even downright lies proceeding from minds that have become "irrational" and "demented" by ambition and greed.
A student on his or her first year at law school gets an introduction to some of the oddest words which later become everyday fare – words like stare decisis, res judicata, etc. As a law student, I became fascinated with these words, and at the Law, Science and Policy class of the late great Yale Law professor emeritus Myres McDougal (who had a special admiration for the Filipino), we became familiar with a great many more. Enshrined in the judicial systems of the world is a whole wealth of judicial decisions that have become part of the jurisprudential law of the land – powerful landmark decisions that have been enunciated by the court of last resort of the particular country – in the case of the Philippines, the Supreme Court of the land. God has entrusted upon some of what are supposed to be the most brilliant judicial practitioners of the country that enlightened presumption that they have that special gift of independence of mind, that God-given and invaluable essence of integrity of the spirit, that total dedication to truth and justice that nothing can destroy no matter how high the material price.
When one gets appointed to the Supreme Court of the Philippines, I would like to think that this is no ordinary bestowal of responsibility, it is a tap on the shoulders by an enlightened sword, not just of the appointive power which is the presidency, but an ordination of shining knighthood, and the appointee becomes henceforth every citizen’s knight in shining armor, every citizen’s fighter for what is right, what is true, what is moral and what is just. When he pens his signature to a Supreme Court decision, as he performs his responsibilities, and studies the particular issues within the jurisdiction of this supreme body, there is absolutely no other consideration that should shape his decision but that emanating from the shining sword that tapped his shoulders, gave him the strength of a David in the face of all the Goliaths of this world, and made him the shining knight for truth and justice, Should he have any consideration other than this, he would not only have cut up the heart of the Filipino, but trampled upon the Divine Power who allowed his elevation to the Supreme Court to happen. The Supreme Court is the court of last resort, and its decisions are sacred enunciations and resolutions that, pursuant to the principle of stare decisis become res judicata to all of us law-abiding citizens, become a part of what is the treasury of the jurisprudential law of the land, the invaluable judicial precedents that are now, within the context of Philippine information technology, a part of the "Precedent Bank" of the Philippines. All these to prevail until overturned in the future by the same tribunal for reasons that may be dictated by the passage of time according to every Supreme Court Associate Justice’s pursuit of the order of the shining sword that made him the citizen’s knight of undiluted truth and justice.
A law firm that is perceived to be extremely strong and influential in relation to the presidential office and its attachments, and the judiciary, bears not only constant and persistent vigilance from a citizenry that has been aroused twice in the past to seek governance with integrity, without the filth and slush of what we call "dirty politics," and the shameful extravagance in the personal lifestyle of the country’s leadership. The existence of such a law firm can be one of the primordial deterrents to the promulgation of decisions and opinions of quasi-judicial bodies, of executive agencies, of project management teams and review committees the length and stretch of the bureaucracy, that can be prone to take orders from above, of course, even of judicial functionaries. The effect on opinions and resolutions, on obiter dicta, on project execution and implementation involving committee review resolutions, can be deep, widespread and far-reaching. Where appointees are beholden to any one or any group of people, where appointees are former partners or associates of a law firm, where functionaries in both judicial and executive agencies owe their assumption of power to ties with a very active and influential law firm functioning with even greater momentum and effectivity, there is every reason for the Filipino citizen to get severely disappointed, in fact, disgusted with the way adjudications will be undertaken and the possible obstruction to the rendering of undiluted justice. This is how an "unseen hand" so-called, or what are now called "the Barbarians" can defeat what the shining sword ordained – undiluted truth and justice for the Philippine citizenry.
The soul of our judicial system, the very heart of the functioning of our executive bureaucracy will be stained. The data bank of judicial precedents within our modern digital and information society will be tainted with the ugliness of bias, injustice and filth. This, by the way, is the connection between the "powerful law firm" and the "precedent bank" that is still evolving. Thomas Paine said: "No unusual influence should be given to any one group of individuals performing an indiscreet purpose. They will surely abuse it."
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