EDITORIAL - Has the Supreme

Court cracked?

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno called for a press conference last Thursday to answer a lot of issues involving the Supreme Court. So, did the Supreme Court just blink? Or was it just Sereno who did? Anyway anyone looked at it, even given that she did answer many questions, neither the Supreme Court nor Sereno should have called for that press conference.

As it turned out, the perception now is that the Supreme Court has been stung, particularly by the wild accusations made against it by no less than President Aquino himself. Before the press conference, everything that Aquino unleashed against the Supreme Court had been perceived as just the rantings of someone who cannot take being rejected.

When the Supreme Court declared unanimously that portions of Aquino's presidential pork barrel called Disbursement Acceleration Program were unconstitutional, Aquino went berserk. He began accusing the high court of overreaching its functions. He threatened it with a head-on clash against the executive. He unleashed attack dogs in Congress to start the process of depriving the court of its fiscal independence. And he let loose Kim Henares against the justices.

But every Filipino with a clear head saw all of these as just what they are - the rantings of a scorned man. Aquino could have frothed in the mouth for all that he cared, and that would have been that. Nobody was about to assail the Supreme Court merely on Aquino's say so. And because perception is everything, you know who was winning the perception game hands down.

But lo and behold, instead of just keeping still in their high chairs, their mouths zipped but their eyes and ears open, the Supreme Court, or was it just the chief justice herself, had to call that darn press conference. All of a sudden the perception is that the Supreme Court needed to explain when it owed nobody, least of all Aquino, an explanation.

The Supreme Court has been drawn into a fight that is not only unnecessary but one where there can only be one real loser, and that is itself. Aquino is, for all intents and purposes, a political animal. That is the nature of the calling he has chosen. Whether winning or losing, it is of no moment to him. That is the nature of his game.

The Supreme Court cannot and must not be in the same mold. It has to be cloaked with certain restraints. It cannot play the game of politicians. That is the reason why justices are not even supposed to have a social life. That is the reason why the Supreme Court has a spokesman. And yet the Supreme Court, or was it just Sereno, had to call the presscon. How pathetic that the high court/Sereno had to sound pleading about not wanting to pick a fight with Aquino.