EDITORIAL - The Supreme Court as victim

There is something terribly wrong and unfair in the way some people regard the Supreme Court as an "Arroyo Supreme Court" simply on the basis of the fact that nearly all its members have been appointed by President Arroyo.

While it is true that nearly all of its members have been appointed by Arroyo, it is not as if she made those appointments irregularly, or with some sinister motive in mind. She made those appointments because she had to as a matter of course. It is as simple as that.

Whether we like it or not, appointing anybody to the Supreme Court comes with authority vested in no other person in this country except the president. It is her duty to fill up the vacancies in the court as they arise.

Thus, to say she has been filling the Supreme Court with her appointees is maliciously misleading and unfair because she simply had no choice, and those who use this discombobulated argument just to flog her are not being honest both to themselves and the people.

Arroyo may be one of the most unpopular presidents this country ever had. And maybe some of the things people accuse her of are true. But filling up the Supreme Court with her appointees, in the malicious context of how the assertion is being made, is not one of them.

Besides, it is not as if Arroyo just plucked Supreme Court appointees from some secret bag of tricks that people were not aware of. To make an appointment, Arroyo has to choose from a list of nominees prepared by the Judicial and Bar Council.

By and large, the integrity of the JBC has not been questioned, whether now or even when Arroyo was not yet president. So it is ridiculous to flog Arroyo for making appointments from a JBC-prepared list when neither the JBC nor its list ever fell under any cloud of doubt.

Sometimes we suspect that flogging Arroyo has become such a habit or a fad that we let fly accusations just for the sake of accusing, never pausing to reflect whether the accusation has basis or, worse, whether it can boomerang and hurt the innocent instead.

For instance, it is unfair to the good men and women of the Supreme Court to be ostracized and stigmatized simply because they are Arroyo appointees. Nobody is trying to stop all this anti-Arroyo politicking. But let it not come at the expense of the Supreme Court.