Eyes on the CA
As I have written last week, presidential spokesman Harry Roque may have exposed himself to charges of conflict of interest in reacting vehemently to the Court of Appeals decision freeing former Palawan governor Joel Reyes, who had been charged in connection with the killing of environmentalist and broadcaster Gerry Ortega. But while he had once been the lawyer for the Ortega family, Roque no longer is. And he insists President Duterte allowed him to freely speak his mind on the matter.
But Roque should not be the issue here, as Reyes would like to make it appear. Again, as I have written, the focus should be on the Court of Appeals and its seeming tendency to issue rulings in controversial cases that go against the normal expectations of most neutral and disinterested observers, thereby arousing their suspicions and creating distrust in their government.
Reyes was not the first to benefit from a favorable ruling by the Court of Appeals. Earlier it acquitted pork barrel scam suspect Janet Lim Napoles of illegal detention and dismissed compensation claims of more than 10,000 human rights victims of the Marcos regime. And while the CA can always claim all its actions are based on the merits and evidence, the consistency of its rulings in favor of "the other side" cannot but induce fear and anxiety in a public hungry for real justice.
And that is not even all of it. Closer to home, the CA also cleared Cebu City congressman Rodrigo Abellanosa of conflict of interest over a scholarship program in which the school he was identified with primarily benefitted. And in neighboring Negros Oriental, the fear is great that its thrice-dismissed governor, Roel Degamo, might get a third reprieve from, who else, but the Court of Appeals.
Degamo had been dismissed thrice by the Office of the Ombudsman for grave abuse of authority arising from a fund malversation case. In each of the previous two times, the Court of Appeals reversed the Ombudsman dismissal orders. The third Ombudsman dismissal order is now up on appeal again before the same appellate court and if anyone harbors any misgivings about what the outcome might be, he will not be alone in light of all that has been happening in this court.
It is this feared eventuality that makes the Degamo case before the Court of Appeals deserving of strict and conscious public monitoring. After the Marcos victims case, the Janet Napoles case, the Reyes case, the Abellanosa case, and God knows what other cases that may have escaped the public eye, the Degamo case that is now on appeal before the court bears watching. Given the CA's uncanny track record, the Degamo case not only bears watching, it merits intense vigilance.
This is not to say a third reprieve for Degamo is forthcoming from the Court of Appeals. Nothing is really certain in court cases. Nobody really knows which way a court decision can swing. On the other hand, nobody can also blame court watchers and the public in general if they begin to anticipate CA rulings with a little more trepidation. By its own track record, it is the CA itself that inspires that anxiousness in the people.
It did not help that almost as soon as Reyes was freed by the CA, the justice who penned the decision announced he will be retiring earlier than he is supposed to. Of course it is his prerogative when to retire. But things just seem to have reached a point at the CA where everything it does is met with suspicion. To have sunk so low in the public esteem is such a sad thing for justice in the Philippines. If it still can, the CA should redeem itself by doing what is truly right and just.
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