The composition of the top five officials of the 2016 administration is a triumph for the legal profession. For the first time since EDSA ’86, we have a lawyer for a president. In fact, it has been quite a while since we had lawyers occupying the top four elective positions in government. President Rodrigo Duterte, Vice President Leonor Robredo, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez are all members of the Bar. The fifth official, Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, has to be a lawyer to be eligible for appointment to the Court. The last time a lawyer was elected president was 47 years ago, 1969, in the person of Ferdinand Marcos.
This development augurs well for the rule of law, the maintenance of which, as recognized by the Supreme Court, is one of the duties of the legal profession. True enough, an anxious nation cheered when, at his inaugural address, the President professed that “my adherence to due process and the rule of law is uncompromising.”
His latest statements, however, seem to belie this earlier manifesto. When owning up to a misjudgment on the severity of the drug menace and expressing the need for a six-month extension, he used the T word in locating a culprit for the difficulty in waging the anti-drug campaign. T as in technicality, referring to law and its due processes.
When the protections of the law and its processes, expressed in their most basic form in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, are seen as technicalities or inconveniences, then every victory in the war against drugs is a defeat in the war to salvage the rule of law.
The whole rationale behind the idea of the rule of law is that the ends do not justify the means.
Foreign policy. A few columns ago, we took note of the understandable focus of the President on the United States and China at the summit of ASEAN heads of state. We pointed out that it is the actually the European Union (EU) that stands as our largest source of foreign direct investments. Even then, the European Chamber of Commerce was already discussing the “hesitation” of their investors to continue at their pace.
These past days, the EU was flavor of the week as it took its turn to face the Palace’s withering and relentless tirades. The EU’s response was to maintain that “the European Union and the Philippines enjoy good relations, and we will continue to discuss this issue…”. On the ground, however, the reality is that not only investments but also grants are at risk of being withheld.
Its becoming more and more clear that the President, who has the biggest role in shaping our foreign policy consistent with national interest, intends to press the reset button. He is ready to deal with China and Russia. If this is the direction he feels is best for the country, we all should welcome a national discussion on the matter. Perhaps we can include a debate on democratic principles in the agenda of the Constitutional Convention or Constituent Assembly when they decide on the revision of our Constitution. China and Russia are the two preeminent examples of non-democratic regimes in the world.
When is a House not a House? Your House of Representatives, in their blood thirst to pin down Senator Leila de Lima (with the Senator’s former party colleagues leading the charge), is allowing itself to be used as venue for sensationalism. Ok, but can we focus now on the matter at hand? The objective is to rid the law enforcement agencies of narco protectors and to restore our jails to their role as correctional facilities and not the drug headquarters that they are now.
A legislative inquiry is the best opportunity for the chamber to gather information. The House is polluted, I mean peppered, with behemoths of the legal profession. Any one of them could have ably represented the institution in ferreting out the answers from reluctant witnesses. Yet they surrendered this important role to the Secretary of Justice.
Admittedly, it was amusing to see Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II try out the interrogator’s seat this time around. The public’s last and most memorable recollection of the Secretary was when, as a private prosecutor in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, he cupped his ears in full view of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago while she was delivering a speech.
I am what I am. “I will never change my style, character and identity. My identity is my universal. That is the identity that God gave me. I will never change it for anybody. Not for threats, not for insults, not for anything.” Thus spake President Rodrigo Duterte.
I agree. Lets stop seeking to turn the President into something he is not. The remedy for those who can’t bear it is to await the next election or, as some quarters might try, to check for reliefs afforded in the Constitution. In the meantime, we sink or swim with the President we chose.
Shades of Edmund Burke’s great statement that members of Parliament should be representatives and not mere delegates: “But his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
Musiko sa Museo. Today at the Museo Pambata on Roxas Boulevard corner Luneta, a concert featuring the Young Filipinos Orchestra will be staged in memory of Azucena Vera Perez. The performance will be followed by a workshop where young audience members may try out the orchestral instruments. The concert starts at 3 p.m. Admission is free.