Can an 'outsider' make a good CJ?

President Aquino has until August 27 to choose the next Chief Justice (CJ) of the Supreme Court (SC). Will he choose an “insider,” one who has sat in the High Tribunal who might have a better understanding of the demands and responsibilities that come with the job? Or will he favor an “outsider” who can give a new perspective as he assumes the hotly-contested, most awesome seat holding the title primus inter pares, the first among equals or peers?

I would, and so would you, if we were so endowed, and passionately desirous of becoming CJ, declare our competence and readiness for the job. After all, the job is almost every lawyer’s supreme aspiration. So it’s not surprising that three of the five SC associate justices who made it to the Judicial and Bar Council shortlist of CJ candidates unabashedly said an “insider” — meaning one of them — would make for a good CJ.

Acting CJ Antonio Carpio, who topped the JBC’s shortlist of nominees, said, “I will not deny that (appointing an outsider) will be bad for the morale (of the insiders). It’s like in the AFP. Is it necessary to appoint an outsider to reform the judiciary? I don’t think it’s necessary.” 

Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, the youngest of the JBC-approved nominees who made a good impression on television watchers during her interview with the mighty members of the JBC, said, “Kung outsider ang ilalagay natin, parang nag-appoint ng civilian na mag-head ng giyera imbis na general. (If we appoint an outsider, it’s like appointing a civilian to head a war instead of a general).”

Finally, Associate Justice Roberto Abad opined that “there is a natural bias for an insider, his performance is already tested and on the record. Appointing an outsider CJ is risky.”

Everyone takes risks in any important undertaking. Sometimes, as in marriage, one realizes the risk one has taken — but that is, if one has reasons to regret having taken the risk. Of course there’s such a thing as calculated risk. The President will be taking a calculated, informed risk. Once he decides his man or woman for CJ, he can’t turn back, his choice can only be taken out by impeachment.

In case the President chooses an outsider, he will be doing what is sometimes practiced in the US judicial system, some of whose chief justices are outsiders. To name a few, there’s John Marshall, Earl Warren and William Howard Taft. Marshall was secretary of state before he was appointed CJ; Warren was solicitor general where he penned civil rights and desegregation laws in the 60s; while Taft became CJ after serving as US president.

A friend of mine reasons that “having an outsider CJ for our own SC may be what is required by the times because an outsider can bring in fresh perspectives and ideas into a ‘tarnished’ institution, whose present ‘insider’ members may have been saddled by mountains of backlogged cases, questionable decisions and issuances of writs and temporary restraining orders that observers claim favor moneyed and powerful litigants.’’

My observer friend notes that Sereno’s analogy that SC “insiders” can be considered generals while the “outsiders” are mere civilians “is flawed because the selection process ensures that all the candidates must, at the very least, be well-established lawyers. It’s not like, a non-lawyer outsider would be asked to head the SC.”

Three outsiders in the shortlist certainly are not mere civilians, but above the ordinary. They are former Executive Secretary, Congressman and bar topnotcher Ronnie Zamora, former Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza and former Ateneo law dean Cesar Villanueva.  

So, come August 27, we shall know who the next CJ will be, and should it be an outsider, the insiders must learn to work with him.

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I watched Sen. Vicente Sotto deliver his series of anti-Reproductive Health bill diatribe and I flinched at how he manipulated facts about contraceptives. Well, he got a dose of his own medicine when a US blogger, Sarah Pope, called him a “lying thief” for allegedly plagiarizing her in his speech at the Senate plenary hall.

Sarah Pope writes for the US-based TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com. She had cited Russian-born physician Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride as a source in one of her blogs on the use of contraceptives — the same source quoted by Sotto in his speech against the controversial measure. Sotto said McBride claimed that contraceptives “cause an imbalance between good and bad bacteria in the intestines that breaks down the defense against infection.” Pope said Sotto had used her quote in her interview with McBride without attributing it to Pope. This resulted in the charge that the Senate majority floor leader was plagiarizing Pope.

The good senator denied plagiarizing Pope. But the senator’s chief of staff, Hector Villacorta, admitted that they had used Pope’s blog without any attribution.

Pope is said to have said, “He thinks he’s above the law, he can do whatever he wants, then the Filipino people should take action and vote him out of office,” said Pope.

Pope also took exception to Sotto’s comments about her being called as just “a blogger”, saying, “I’m not just a stupid blogger, a stupid mom who’s blogging about recipe. I’m no dummy. When a woman is condescended to like that, that is very rude.”

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After many days of bad weather, the sun finally came out, and my hubby and I decided to treat his son, Jojo Daof, Jr. and his wife Jericha and two children, Carlos and Sofia, to dinner. Jojo, Veeco product manager, is presently visiting Veeco customers in China, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. Veeco Instruments Inc. designs, manufactures and markets equipment to make light emitting diodes (LEDs), hard-disk drives, as well as for emerging applications such as concentrator photovoltaics, power semiconductors,, wireless components, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and other next-generation devices.

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We took Jojo and family to the best restaurant to take Balikbayans to — our long- time favorite Bangus Restaurant in Greenhills. From a mouth-watering menu, we ordered bangus skin chicharon, sizzling bangus belly, bulalo, crispy tadyang, lumpiang bangus, shrimps in a bed of aligue, and for dessert, tibok-tibok (maja blanca) and halo-halo. It was a weeknight, but the place was packed full with diners who like the restaurant’s food quality and service. Diana Santamaria, one of sister-owners of the restaurant operating under the name Bangus Republic Inc., told me a current promo is the shrimp festival that’s “sure to be good to the shell.”

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