In a couple of months, it would be interesting to see what happens to the career of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 Judge Elmo Alameda.
For sure the judge has drawn positive attention in high places for going along with the entire argument of the government regarding the amnesty granted to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.
Alameda disregarded video footage, photographs, news reports and the sworn affidavit of Col. Josefa Berbigal, head of the ad hoc amnesty committee secretariat, that she personally received Trillanes’ amnesty application during the presidency of Benigno Aquino III.
In voiding the amnesty, the current administration – backed by Alameda – is effectively arguing that the Senate erred in concurring with the amnesty, that the Commission on Elections failed to do its job by allowing the amnestied Trillanes to seek a Senate seat, and that voters were wrong in making him win.
In his heart of hearts, perhaps Judge Alameda is wondering how history will judge him, following his controversial ruling. But such concerns can be easily trumped by the prospect of promotion to a higher court – even, why not, to the Supreme Court.
The three branches of government are supposed to be co-equal and independent. In reality, however, the Philippine judiciary is heavily politicized and influenced by the executive, through the president’s power to appoint and promote. Congress also holds the power of the purse over the judiciary, based on proposals by the executive.
Even appointees to the Supreme Court are not immune to the persuasive powers of the presidency. SC justices can aspire not just for promotion to chief justice, but also for an appointment to another position in government, such as ombudsman, elections chief or ambassador.
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If Congress wants to promote independence in the Supreme Court, it should pass legislation prohibiting SC justices from accepting any appointive position from the president (except, of course, for chief justice), up to two years after their retirement from the high tribunal.
Appointments and promotions in the judiciary should also be de-politicized, with senior members of the judiciary themselves given the loudest voice in the selection process, based on strictly enforced criteria.
The highly politicized system of appointment and promotion in the judiciary has given the country incompetent and crooked magistrates who are beholden to the politicians who endorsed them.
Members of the judiciary should be subjected to lifestyle checks or some form of asset scrutiny when they render controversial decisions or issue temporary restraining orders with abandon.
It would be good to find out, for example, if there are marked improvements in the fortunes of judges after they dismiss cases against the Marcos clan on a mere technicality.
There are also the judges who have cleared several politicians of plunder and graft cases in connection with the pork barrel and fertilizer fund scams. The judges cited the “inordinate delay” in the indictments of the defendants by the Office of the Ombudsman. While the delays in certain cases are truly appalling, several cases look like they were dismissed with undue haste.
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The continuing legal victories of the Marcoses have to be among the reasons for the political comeback of the clan. Ordinary folks don’t bother scrutinizing if the Marcoses win a legal battle on a technicality or on the merits of the case.
People simply see the record and consider: if no member of the Marcos clan has been convicted of any offense in the past 32 years, despite the seizure of billions in assets traced to the family, perhaps there is basis for their professed innocence and it’s time, as Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos suggests, for the country to move on.
If the latest Pulse Asia survey is accurate, Filipinos are heeding her advice: she’s in the top five of the likely winners for the Senate if the elections were held today.
Her brother is even openly trying to rewrite history together with martial law enforcer Juan Ponce Enrile. In 2016, even before Rodrigo Duterte became the top endorser of the Marcos brand, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Jr. already made an impressive showing at the polls, coming within a hairbreadth of the vice presidency.
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Two human rights victims of the dictatorship – living proofs that Enrile lied in claiming that no one was arrested for political beliefs during martial law – faced us on The Chiefs this week on Cignal TV’s One News.
Etta Rosales, former chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights, was arrested twice, raped and beaten by government forces during the Marcos regime. She attributes the amazing political comeback of the Marcoses to “the politics of money” and the culture of patronage that even people power could not change, along with a general institutional failure.
Our other guest, Rene Saguisag, has a similar opinion. But he also blames the seven coup attempts against Corazon Aquino, with Enrile linked to them, for putting the post-EDSA government on constant survival mode, rendering it difficult to fully focus on the effort to hold the Marcoses and their cronies accountable for the sins of the dictatorship.
Saguisag served as Cory Aquino’s spokesman during her revolutionary government. He estimates that people power euphoria lingered until the first post-EDSA elections. When he ran for the Senate in 1987, Saguisag recalls wistfully that he did not have to spend a single centavo.
Businessman Tony Gonzalez, who employed Saguisag’s late wife Dulce, contributed P1 million to the campaign. After the elections, Saguisag says he returned the money, unused.
That was the brief period, Saguisag says, when Filipinos thought about what they could do for their country rather than the other way around. People voted based on issues and principles rather than on who could pay more. But by 1988 during the local elections, Saguisag says money politics was back.
He did not mention the courts, but today the judiciary is also plagued by magistrates who think only of themselves and a hefty retirement nest egg.
Saguisag, wearing a bright yellow shirt to our show, is now 79 and not fully recovered from the car accident that killed his wife. He doesn’t look like he has given up believing that Filipinos still have the spark, the patriotic spirit that made the 1986 revolt succeed.
Etta Rosales also refuses to give in to cynicism.
“We should not lose hope that humanity has its potential,” Rosales said.