As observed by Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ, the motive of the appointing power may either be personal, political or ideological. It is truly when the motive of the appointing power is invested with political or personal color that the appointment of a Chief Justice can truly spawn chaotic potential problems for the judiciary and the country. It is believed that in the present national situation, it is too dangerous to say that the interpretation, application and enforcement of the Constitution is the sole prerogative of the Supreme Court. The two other great departments of government which are the President and the Congress are equally vested with power and duty to interpret, apply and enforce the Constitution, for as already said, the process cannot be the special province of any single entity.
When there is clear and serious transgression of the Constitution, the people are not without recourse. They can act through their duly elected representatives in the persons of the President and the Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate to stop these transgressions of the Constitution. These are the political organs of the people acting in accordance with constitution processes. To quote from Government vs. Springer, penned by Justice Malcolm during the SC’s golden age:
“It is beyond the power of any branch of the Government of the Philippine Islands to exercise its functions in any other way than that prescribed by the Organic Law or by local laws which conform to the Organic Law. The Governor-General must find his powers and duties in the fundamental law. An Act of the Philippine Legislature must comply with the grant from Congress. The jurisdiction of this court and other courts is derived from the constitutional provisions.” (50 Phil 259, 1927)
Therefore, if the present House of Representatives has seen fit to file impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Renato Corona, this is nothing but an exercise of the people’s recourse under the Constitution for what they perceive as acts constitutive of an “aggression on the authority of the Constitution.”
The Articles of Impeachment transmitted by the House, and received by the Senate, is likewise in accordance with the Constitutional provisions. It is this body that can then conduct the trial and render judgment for the exoneration or removal of the Chief Justice.
Indeed, the remedy to resolve what is feared by some as a constitutional crisis is found in the Constitution itself which wisely reserved for the people the necessary tools as chief palladium of the Constitutional liberty acting through their political organs which are the House and the Senate.
Regardless of the outcome of the impeachment case, the founding fathers of our Constitution cannot but applaud that the exercise is reflective of the political maturity of the Filipino people, their tendency toward self-denigration notwithstanding.
The system works!