The Supreme Court must rise above the stigma

People who keep on harping derisively about the Supreme Court being an Arroyo court, and then offer no other argument than the fact that 14 of the 15 sitting justices in it have all been appointed by former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, are being mentally dishonest.

If that is the only way to see it, and then to narrowly interpret what we see, then of course there is no argument that the Supreme Court is an Arroyo court because it is packed almost right to the brim with Arroyo appointees.

But talking of “nagbingi-bingian at nagbulag-bulagan lang,” these mentally dishonest people are deliberately ignoring the equally unassailable fact that Arroyo had absolutely no hand in creating the Supreme Court vacancies that she, only as a matter of obligation, had to fill.

The vacancies happened as a matter of course, born of the vagaries of circumstance and time over which no one had any control, Arroyo herself included. But when they did happen, it was her sworn duty to fill them, regardless of the mental dishonesty some people may regard the act.

Again, the Supreme Court is an Arroyo court only because Arroyo was the sitting president at the time the vacancies occurred, and it was her duty to fill them. Had there been any other president at the time who filled the vacancies, it would have been his or her court too.

That being said, the Supreme Court must struggle mightily, perhaps more than any other previously constituted Supreme Court, to prove its independence, integrity and intelligence, and acknowledge the precarious position it occupies on the bar of public trust and confidence.

For whether the Supreme Court justices like it or not, the happenstance of their ascendancy at the time of the unpopular Arroyo presidency has left them irreparably but unfairly stigmatized.

The Supreme Court justices must prove, by word and deed, that they are impervious to the stigma, that it is not transferrable to their persons, and that, as a court of last resort, it is worthy of the tremendous responsibility reposed on its shoulders by an often agonized nation.

That, of course, is not an easy thing to do. And that is because this particular Supreme Court has been dishing out controversial decisions that, while having nothing to do with Arroyo, are being lumped together with the prevailing public sentiment against it.

Let’s face it. In this country, the political battles that eventually decide the national fortunes are being waged before only a small segment of the population who have access to the news and information.

The rest of the nation is either impervious to anything that moves beyond their immediate need to secure today’s meal, or simply sits and waits until the chips have fallen and settled and everything gets wrenched along until the next hiccup interrupts life anew.

Most Filipinos are discerning and mentally honest enough to see beyond the fact that all but one of the Supreme Court justices are all Arroyo appointees, a fact that they dismiss as irrelevant.

What these Filipinos expect of their Supreme Court, however, Arroyo court or not, are actions and decisions that do not go against the grain of their sensibilities and fail their cherished expectations.

In other words, discerning and mentally honest Filipinos expect common sense from their court of last resort. They want decisions they can live with, decisions that give them confidence and peace of mind. Fail that, and the stigma sticks, no matter how frivolous and unfair.