Understanding Jinggoy’s fury over Davide

At a first glance of the news on Jinggoy’s outrage over Davide’s appointment to the United Nations, I could not understand why Jinggoy was very upset about it. But on second thought I said to myself even if Davide is highly qualified to get such an assignment, to Jinggoy, Davide is still the person who put his father in jail. This, to a son is very painful to accept.

I know from what I have read and what I have been reading that former Justice Hilario G. Davide is indeed a good man. A man who can represent the Philippine government in the international scene. I just could not reconcile the emotions that Jinggoy had but after analyzing it, I concluded that it was more of a personal fight than a professional one. There is nothing wrong with this. I guess Jinggoy has the right to feel that way.

Anyway, I know my father had told me stories about Davide. In fact, while he was sick in bed around March or April last year, I was suppose to type for him the foreword for Davide’s book, so I had to review the book written by Antonio R. Tupaz. You may find his foreword interesting and so I decided to reprint it on this page.

LA ROCA FIRME: That’s Davide Maximo V. Soliven

When former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada was casting about for a new Supreme Court Chief Justice in November 1997, saying he knew of nobody he could trust, this journalist offered him two names from which to choose. One of the others mentioned, I told him, has been tainted by a number of shady deals, but the two I suggested – to my knowledge – were simon-pure.

I offered him a choice between Associate Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. and Associate Justice Reynato Puno. Both, I had assured Mr. Estrada, had proven both their mettle and their integrity.

"I don’t know either of them," Estrada complained. "But if you were to narrow it down to one, whom would you pick?" I was personally inclined towards Puno since we had known each other from our College Editor’s Guild (CEG) days, but I felt Davide, for some reason, had the more gravitas – and so I indicated him as my final choice.

Presidents don’t usually listen to newspapermen in matters judiciary, therefore I was surprised when Erap sighed, "Okay," then went out of the room to have the documents drawn up announcing Davide.

For months afterwards, Mr. Estrada used this example to rebuff claims that he was elevating only cronies, pals, "classmates" or compadres, to premier positions. Pointing to Davide, he would exclaim: "I didn’t know him from Adam, but I appointed Davide because Max Soliven pushed for him!"

This got me, I must admit, somewhat discomfited, since Davide might make a serious mistake, or get one hand caught in the cookie jar (not likely), then I’d get blamed for it. But Davide didn’t disappoint me. He was designated 20th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on November 30, 1998, took his oath of office at the Bonifacio Shrine in Manila, then never looked back.

In 2000, the Chief Justice acted as the presiding officer of the Estrada "impeachment" trial – a task he undertook with probity and dignity. To be sure Erap was unhappy – nay, furious, at Davide’s lack of any iota of gratitude for having been gifted with the highest post in the judiciary.

When I wrote a few months ago that Mr. Estrada had appointed Davide Chief Justice completely out of the blue, despite the fact he had not known or vetted him previously, former President Estrada – who had been our friend and neighbor in Greenhills for 25 years – rang me up from his prison in Bicutan to confirm that it had only been on my say- so that he had appointed Davide as Chief Justice. "And look where it got me!" Erap complained. "I’ve spent five years in jail already!"

This remark, I believe, is the best compliment paid Davide and his stewardship of the High Court.

You know the rest. After the EDSA DOS revolution which ejected Estrada from power, the Chief Justice administered the oath of office to his Vice-President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, before a massive, cheering crowd at the EDSA Shrine. The Court, under his leadership, had acted swiftly to prevent a power vacuum from developing in those days of turmoil and confusion.

Martin Luther King, Jr., in a letter written from his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama on August 1963, once pointed out that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Davide set himself out to lead the Supreme Court to make sure that pockets of injustice were never tolerated anywhere. He believed with Robert G. Ingersoll of Chicago that "there is but one blasphemy and that is injustice."

Chief Justice Davide was conferred a Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service. Finally, after the 2004 reelection campaign, Davide administered the oath of office in his native Cebu to President Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice-President Noli de Castro. He retired as Chief Justice on December 20, 2005, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. His worthy successor is the new Chief Justice – himself a prolific writer – Artemio Panganiban.

"As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined," a first year high school poem reminds students on the verge of carving out of their future. It is a fact that Davide was born on December 20, 1935 in the small barangay of Colawin in Argao, Cebu. His father was Hilario P. Davide, Sr., and his mother Josefa Gelbolingo, a former public school teacher, so this twig was bent in favor of education. He went to Manila, to the University of the Philippines where he first obtained an Associate in Arts in 1955, then entered the U.P. College of Law. However, let’s leave the details of his life and his philosophy to the author of this book, Dean Tupaz.

The President, as this goes to press, is bestowing a further honor on Davide. She nominated him our next Ambassador to the United Nations, but unfortunately his nomination did not get to Congress before it adjourned in April. She intends, however, to nominate him anew in mid-May when Congress convenes its next session. Surely, the Commission on Appointments will confirm the Hon. Davide’s Ambassadorship to the UN. It is safe to predict he will do brilliantly and well on the international diplomatic forum.

The great Roman Senator Marco Tullio Cicero (in his oration Pro Planchio) once scoffed that "in the common people there is no wisdom, no penetration, no judgment."

That’s why every nation needs men like Davide who "live above the fog, in public duty and in private thinking."