Commissioning the Truth

There are always two sides to the “truth” and this absolutely holds true for the Philippine Truth Commission. The arguments from both sides are reasonably correct but at the end of the day, it was deemed “unconstitutional” by the Supreme Court.

With President Noynoy’s continued high approval rating, there are certainly a lot of people who are sympathetic with P-Noy’s rationale and objective for the PTC’s creation — to find out the truth on unfinished business like the ZTE-NBN deal, etc., and put closure to them. Even the Supreme Court manifested its empathy and compassion with the “noble intentions” of P-Noy’s Executive Order No. 1 in its decision.

However, the SC ruled against the EO, quoting that “the end does not justify the means.” The SC pointed out critical legal flaws, the most notable of which is the violation of the equal protection clause embodied in the Constitution as it “singles out” the past administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo because the PTC is mandated to focus on a specific period from 2001 to 2010 — the years when GMA was president. The Truth Commission should not make any “arbitrary classification,” meaning everyone should be treated the same, the ruling said.

Chief Justice Renato Corona — who has been in the limelight lately and threatened with impeachment by P-Noy’s allies in Congress — remains cool, standing pat by the decision and appealing to critics to read the 45-page decision first before making conclusions, part of which states, “Of all the branches of government, it is the judiciary which is the most interested in knowing the truth and so it will not allow itself to be a hindrance or obstacle to its attainment. It must, however, be emphasized that the search for the truth must be within constitutional bounds for ‘ours’ is still a government of laws and not of men.”

In his statement, President Noy argued it would be impossible to treat the GMA administration as “the same” because she served for nine years — which “went beyond what is expected under the law.” Now that opens up our argument that the root cause of all this mess (for lack of a better word) was when the Constitutional process was cut short during the impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada and people resorted to what has been described as a “mob rule.” And the irony of it all is that it was then-Chief Justice Hilario Davide — now Truth Commission head — that ultimately legitimized the Presidency of Gloria Arroyo by coming out with a never-heard legal concept called the “constructive resignation” of then-President Estrada.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima hit it right on the nose when she herself admitted the existence of a “loophole” in the Constitution that enabled GMA to fill the high court with her appointees. For as long as the Supreme Court Justices she appointed were legally qualified then there’s hardly anything one can do about it. The fact is, the current Constitution has a lot of infirmities and the failure of the system to work could bring about situations such as the one Malacañang is facing right now.

Long before the decision of the SC, brilliant legal luminaries like Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Miriam Defensor Santiago and Joker Arroyo have already been warning the Palace about the legal flaws of EO 1, primarily the fact that the Truth Commission requires an act of Congress, and that its broad functions could end up duplicating the work of the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman. While no one blames the President for surrounding himself with young people believing in a new generation that could provide an out-of-the-box perspective, it is now clear he needs to get good advice from experienced people especially on legal matters like former Chief Justice Reynato Puno. The same holds true for other aspects of his administration like tourism, information and communication and the like.

As things stand, a lot has been said regarding the issue with numerous suggestions on how it should be changed including Chiz Escudero’s advise to just append the letter “s” to “administration” and solve the equal protection clause issue. Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz even suggested placing the Truth Commission under the DOJ. The bottom line however is for Malacañang’s legal team to be more circumspect and study all legal angles carefully. It won’t do either for some officials to be combative or insulting since it could worsen the growing rift between the Executive and the Judiciary — two co-equal branches of government. A collision course may just happen as warned by Senator Joker Arroyo.

A couple of years ago, Pakistan’s former President Gen. Pervez Musharraf removed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and placed him under house arrest while thousands of lawyers protesting on the streets were jailed in 2007. The chaos stemmed from the clash between the Judiciary and the Executive, with Chief Justice Chaudhry questioning the legality of Musharraf’s position as president and army chief at the same time. While it may be unthinkable for the same thing to ever happen here, let’s not forget that a country like Pakistan where there are 200 million people can easily create a chaotic situation for something unusual to happen. Per the world bureau census, the Philippine population as of August 2010 now stands at 99,900,177 and still counting.

We have had enough lessons in our recent history that should teach us the folly of resorting to shortcuts and quick-fix solutions that pander to popular opinion. With our population continuing to grow at an alarming rate, the more the strict observance and implementation of the law becomes necessary to prevent chaos from ever happening.

*      *      *

E-mail: [email protected]