Our Supreme Court does not have Roberto Concepcion anymore!

Few days ago, I felt a profound sense of political foreboding while scanning the newspapers and scrolling diverse social media posts on my cellphone. I could not comprehend the meaning of the unfolding events. To me, the reports indicated an emerging and troubling institutional conflict between the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court which grew out and fed upon the apparent volatile stands of many senators.

To appease my troubled mind, I played long playing vinyls on my antique components. The song Blowin In The Wind which Bob Dylan composed in 1962 provided soul to my disquieted self. Of course, the song was more popularly known as a protest song that asked rhetorical questions about peace, war and freedom. It relayed to my present feeling of unease fueled, in a way, by the Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio. In that decision, our highest tribunal undid my learning of some political law doctrines and worse, it drastically changed my perception of the sacredness of the hallowed robes they wear.

To demonstrate a startling contrast, I must say that the Javellana vs Executive Secretary, (G.R. No. L-36142, March 31, 1973; 50 SCRA 30), more known as the Ratification Cases calmed the surging political storm in our beloved Philippines in the late sixties bridging thru the early seventies. Our nationwide troubles then were arguably worse than what we are witnessing now. There was the Plaza Miranda bombing which almost annihilated the entire political opposition. The late President Ferdinand E Marcos suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus as his reaction to the bombing but while it somehow silenced even more the impoverished masses, it did not quell the increasing anger of the middle class. How about the reports, both unverified and invalidated, that there were about 25,000 fully armed rebels patrolling the countryside. Sparrows were no longer birds but armed partisans who swiftly came down to busy city streets to kill and maim our complacent soldiers and policemen. Massive demonstrations and rallies (which i participated) clogged many of our streets almost daily.

Then, the 1971 constitutional convention, touted to reinvent a more democratic political structure started quite slowly. Martial Law overtook it until its work was eventually presented to the people for ratification. Many of my peers were suspicious that the fundamental law was designed to perpetuate the Marcoses in power, but Supreme Court managed to ride the swirling tide of public opinion and succeeded to quiet the emerging social unrest. The bench, composed of Chief Justice Roberto Concepcion, and Associate Justices Felix Antonio, Antonio Barredo, Fred Ruiz Castro, Salvador Esguerra, Enrique Fernando, Felix Makasiar, Claudio Teehankee and Calixto Zaldivar, proved wiser than King Solomon, when they declared that while the draft constitution did not meet the legal requirements of ratification, the people politically ratified it. The court held the balance of government power from swinging to any side. It restored peace in our land.

The reactions from all sectors of our land to the recent decision of the Supreme Court in Duterte vs House of Representatives are more earthshaking than the recent tremors in Russia. I can see many of our Intelligentsia and a greater number of learned academicians shake their heads in total disbelief. More elitists in our midst say in growing loudness that the highest tribunal has erred. Most importantly, the critical masses have, in my observation, begun to question the court. I cannot disagree that our Supreme Court has lost the kind of wisdom the Concepcion court had! Have I no reason to be afraid of what follows next?