The "Wayward Judiciary"

MANILA

SENATOR FRANCIS "Kiko" Pangilinan makes a call on the legislative and executive branches of government to "stand and oppose" the Supreme Court, which he considers a "wayward judiciary."

"No, this is not anarchy," he said on Monday, November 21. "This is democracy at work. This is checks and balances at work. It is the sworn duty of the executive and the legislative departments to act as a check on a wayward judiciary." 

Reflecting the minds of many, if not most, Filipinos, Pangilinan noted how the high court has failed to restore the public confidence of the judiciary, failed to support the government effort to strike down graft and corruption and government, and "courted insubordination and disrespect for its almost-whimsical and arbitrary exercise of judicial authority in a number of recent cases."

Many Filipinos cannot remember a time when the Supreme Court has so lost the confidence of Filipinos for any show of wisdom in its many decisions, not even during the time of the Marcos dictatorship.

Today, the Supreme Court under the leadership of CJ Renato Corona has shown nothing but symptoms of a bastion of high justice that lost its way. Its actuations tinged of politicism; its decisions display its favorable hands towards those powers that put most of its associate justices in position. The blind lady liberty has lost the blinders in her eyes, and now has brandished its powers not to serve true justice and the Filipino people but what political patronage dictates.

In a time when fight for graft and corruption becomes the byword of government, the executive and legislative branches have awakened and grew in their task of joining the fight. And the branch expected to support the fight now puts its political weight to obstruct this fight.

It seems to be that, in order for the fight against graft and corruption succeed, the present Supreme Court must be "destroyed" in the hope that, like the fabled phoenix of old, it will rise again from the ashes into a new creature that sees nothing but to serve the Filipino people, the genuine cause for justice, and free from the contaminants of corrupt values coming from the Old Politics.

The 2007 Election Fraud Scandal

MANILA

THE JOINT Commission on Election (Comelec)-Department of Justice (DOJ) Committee filed on 18 November 2011 (Friday) a formal charge of poll fraud against former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo before the Pasay Regional Trial Court, Branch 112. Included in the charge are co-accused Andal Ampatuan Sr. (former Maguindanao Governor) and Lintang Bedol (an ex-Comelec official in Maguindanao). Judge Jesus Mupas issued a warrant of arrest for the accused.

The Charge

The Committee recommended the filing a charge for electoral sabotage committed on or before 14 May 2007 where the accused conspired and helped each other to ensure a "12-0" victory in the senatorial candidates of Arroyo's "team unity." No bail applies for the charge. It also sought the issuance of a hold departure order to prevent the accused from leaving the country.

The information filed allege a willful, felonious and unlawful tampering of the "provincial certificate of canvass (PCOC) of votes, the statements of votes by city or municipality (SOVM) and summary statement of votes (SSOV) for the province of Maguindanao."

"A few days before the election day during a dinner meeting in Malacañang Palace," the information continued, "accused Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, personally instructed accused Andal Ampatuan Sr., who was then governor of Maguindanao, to ensure a '12-0' victory for the senatorial candidates of the Team Unity." Ampatuan then instructed accused Atty. Lintang Bedol, then chairman of teh provincial board of canvasser of Maguindanao, to make it happen.

Bedol maneuvered to tamper the PCOC, SOVM, and SSOV adding votes for the 12 Team Unity candidates "ranging from 86,122 to 196,157" votes.

Sources:

Andrade, Jeannette I: "Electoral Sabotage Case Filed vs. Arroyo, Ampatuan, Bedol," Philippine Daily Inquirer 18 November 2011