Shouldn't these justices inhibit next time around?

Talk of inconsistency. The Comelec 1st division ruled that Caloocan ex-congressman Luis Asistio can run for city mayor. This, even if he does not actually live anymore in the address he listed in his candidacy papers. The poll body pointed up that the Asistios are a prominent clan in Caloocan, and Luis has served four times as 2nd district representative.

Fine. Yet the same Comelec division earlier had disqualified Baham Mitra from running as governor of Palawan supposedly for non-residency. The Mitras are known to be Palaweños; Baham’s dad, the late Speaker Ramon Jr., had made the province famous to tourists; Baham is on his third and last term as 2nd district congressman. So what’s the difference?

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Finally the National Telecoms Commission is to auction off the last remaining 3-G radio band. That would lead to better telecom services at cheaper rates to the public. The auction also spells extra state revenue; the last 3-G broadband has been dormant for the past five years when it could have fetched P325 million from annual user fees of P65 million. Disposing of it off would also end the temptation of crooked NTC officials handing it out to influential persons with no real telecom infrastructures.

The NTC had bid out four of the five 3-G frequencies in Jan. 2006. Only four telecom firms had passed the legal, financial and technical tests: Smart, Globe, Digitel (Sun), and Connectivity Unlimited Resources Ent. For the auction of the last 3-G, four previously unqualified parties petitioned to already have met the grade: Bayantel, Multi-Media Telecom, Next Mobile, and AZ Communication. The NTC denied the pleas on the ground that the sale of the last 3-G was part of the qualifications for the first four. The telcos then filed cases before the Court of Appeals. But the Solicitor General has opined that, without any court restraining order, the NTC may proceed with the auction.

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The Philippine Bar Association will go to the core of the issue, says its head Simeon Marcelo. It’s the duty of the oldest and biggest voluntary union of lawyers to uphold the judiciary’s integrity and independence. So in asking the SC to reconsider letting Gloria Arroyo name the next Chief Justice during a constitutional ban, the PBA will ask the pertinent question: what situation has changed so tremendously that the SC, by 9-1 vote last Mar. 17, overturned a unanimous decision of predecessors in 1998?

The SC 12 years ago had tackled the issue of a departing President’s power to appoint members of the judiciary. No less than then-CJ Andres Narvasa penned the ruling that clarified two separate constitutional items. Simply put, he said the President could fill up vacancies unless prohibited. Among those who unanimously concurred were future CJs Hilario Davide, Art Panganiban, and Reynato Puno. It was Davide, as 1986 Constitutional Commissioner, who had drafted the section barring an outgoing President from making appointments two months before the election up to term’s end on June 30.

 Marcelo says the PBA would also ask the SC to hear oral arguments. The group had just submitted its position paper on Friday Mar. 12, and so was surprised when the SC ruled on the issue three workdays later. Usually with touchy cases justices first entertain debates, like in whether Fernando Poe Jr. could run for President in 2004. There was no reason for the SC to rush into a decision two full months before an actual vacancy occurs in the CJ post on May 17, Puno’s retirement day.

Then there’s the matter of conflict of interest. Puno had inhibited from the SC deliberations because he chairs the Judicial and Bar Council that screens CJ nominees. Senior Justices Antonio Carpio and Rene Corona similarly recused because nominated. The PBA will assess if, in moving for review, it should also ask lone dissenter Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales to inhibit. Carpio-Morales, like cousin Carpio, has accepted nomination on the understanding that it’s the next President who’ll do the appointing. If she inhibits, then all the more should two unconditional nominees: Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Arturo Brion.

 Two other justices have close kin running in the May election under Arroyo’s Lakas-Kampi party, and should thus be asked to inhibit. Justice Lucas Bersamin’s brother is running for governor of Abra, and Justice Presbitero Velasco’s son for congressman of Marinduque. The two clearly are conflicted, Marcelo says.

 That would leave only seven of 15 justices to review the issue. If they are unable to render a verdict, Marcelo says, then the ruling of Mar. 15 stays. But then the fact would be highlighted that only a minority would have ruled then, had the conflicted members inhibited from the start.

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 “Words that come merely from your lips have little value. Words that come from your mind have some value. Words that come from your heart are beyond value.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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