POSTSCRIPT By Federico D. Pascual Jr. (The Philippine Star) Updated December 30, 2010
DANGEROUS DRIFT: In this country, it is normal for anybody, or his lawyer, who loses a court case to complain that he was singled out or that the judge was bought by the other party.
But the President of the Philippines is not just anybody. For him to whine that the Supreme Court singled him out or that the majority justices appointed by his predecessor ganged up on him is juvenile, petty, contemptuous of the High Court - and dangerous.
Using the stature and the awesome powers of the presidency to directly attack the integrity and credibility of the Supreme Court is potentially self-destructive.
The people’s loss of faith in the highest court of the land could foment chaos, erode trust in revered institutions, and may even boomerang on the President.
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CHANGE LAWYERS: If President Noynoy Aquino has any solid argument left in defense of his beleaguered Truth Commission, he can instruct his lawyers to present them in a timely motion for reconsideration.
That he is crying persecution outside the court only shows that he has run out of arguments, and is resorting to extra-judicial recourse — which is bad.
It would help if he got really sharp lawyers to replace the bumbling “legal experts” now plotting, presenting and protecting his official acts.
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SUICIDAL MOVE: Our tripartite government cannot stand on just one or two legs. Despite the need for check and balance among them, the three branches should strive to act and talk as one in promoting the public good.
It is reckless, if not suicidal, for one of the three branches of government to break away and openly undermine respect for another branch without cogent reasons.
If a demolition job on the Supreme Court were to be carried out at all, it must be for the highest good and the least collateral damage to all.
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LOSING LUISITA?: Why did the President decide to attack the Supreme Court, a co-equal branch, in a manner that shows lack of civility, finesse and political maturity?
Such a messy operation could have been assigned to subalterns, allies and “strategic” propagandists, but the President chose to do it himself. For maximum and quick results?
Not a few speculate that this scion of the Aquino-Cojuangco clan may have received intelligence that an unfavorable SC ruling on the agrarian reform case involving their 6,400-hectare Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac was coming.
Is President Aquino telling the people not to trust the Supreme Court, so they would be disposed to side with him when he rejects an adverse decision on the Luisita question?
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BAD FORM: The “why only me?” argument is a weak line of defense even when used by a president basking in survey-driven popularity.
A case of Persecution Complex is not taken to court or to the media. The proper remedy is in the healing hands of a medical doctor.
The fact that somebody suffers setbacks in court does not necessarily mean he is being singled out. It could be that he has a weak case in the first place, or that he is stuck with lousy lawyers, or both.
It is bad form for the most powerful man in the country to cry that a majority of justices in the High Court is ganging up on him.
Instead of spraying them with that shotgun accusation, he must prove the bias of each of the justices he is accusing of partiality. If he cannot establish bias, individually, he better not cry in public — because he is the president.
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CHARTER, CALENDAR: On the matter of the Supreme Court being dominated by justices appointed by President Arroyo, that is more of an accident of time.
This country and its bureaucracy just inherited the Cory Constitution and the Gregorian calendar. They did not invent them.
Under the Constitution, when an SC justice retires, resigns, dies in office or is removed for cause, he has to be replaced within a prescribed time.
It would be dereliction on the part of the sitting president to refuse to name a replacement just because he/she is afraid of being accused later of packing the court with his/her appointees.
In time, President Aquino also will have to appoint SC justices as vacancies occur. In the same negative vein, will his appointees be eternally grateful and beholden to him and will go to great lengths to protect him in or out of office?
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MWSS RETIREES: The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System reports that since its privatization in 1997, it has paid P3.67 billion in retirement benefits to more than 2,000 employees without any subsidy from the government.
Macra Cruz, MWSS OIC-administrator, says that funds for its Early Retirement Incentive Program (ERIP) package and other retirement privileges as mandated by RA 1616 are taken from the agency’s savings.
Enacted in 1957, RA 1616 prescribed two other modes of retirement for government employees who retire after 20 or 30 years of service. The law directs government-controlled firms such as MWSS to provide retirement benefits from corporate savings.
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MORE BENEFITS: “The ERIP package provided roughly twice the amount of benefits that the retirees would have received under the standard government retirement package,” Cruz said.
A standard government service retirement pay includes annuity and lifetime pension, five-year lump sum or cash payment with pension, and refund of GSIS premiums plus gratuity payment.
To date, MWSS has paid P286 million to 1,131 retirees who invoked the provisions of RA 1616, which the Supreme Court recognized in 2008.
The water agency is set to complete payment of the P520-million total retirement claims in 2011.
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