EDITORIAL - Primus inter pares

After the unprecedented ouster of a chief justice in an impeachment trial, President Aquino now faces one of the toughest calls: selecting a replacement for Renato Corona. Yesterday the Judicial and Bar Council closed its doors to nominations for the post, with 25 individuals accepting their nominations and 21 declining.

Various power blocs are believed to be endorsing several of those who accepted their nominations. The President’s task will be made easier with the first-ever public screening of the nominees by the Judicial and Bar Council. This should help weed out those less than qualified but endorsed by influential blocs. Since the ouster of Corona partly over his failure to declare substantial amounts of bank deposits in his official asset declarations, there have been several efforts to promote transparency in the judiciary. The opening of the JBC deliberations to media coverage is part of those efforts.

Whoever is selected will be expected to sustain those efforts alongside other measures to improve the overall administration of justice. The Philippine judicial system has gained notoriety for its glacial pace. Corruption in the judiciary has also given rise to the phrase “hoodlums in robes” – famously derided by Joseph Estrada way back when he was the vice president and chief crime-buster of Fidel Ramos.

The next chief justice will need not only competence as the primus inter pares or first among peers but also moral leadership to implement reforms in the judiciary. Whoever is chosen, there will always be questions about his or her independence from the appointing power. Only time, and decisions made by the next chief magistrate, will provide the answer to those questions.

President Aquino often said in public that Corona was a major hindrance to the administration’s good governance thrust. When Corona was impeached, administration allies said it was part of efforts to overhaul the judiciary. The success of that overhaul, in a branch of government that is supposed to be independent of the executive, will depend a great deal on the next chief justice.