I’m completely amazed on the emails, calls, and texts I acquired on my piece final Monday (“From awe to dismay on the Scotus”). Examples: “Disgusting, the Scotus is now not the very best court docket we admire.” “I by no means anticipated that form of conduct from the honorable justices. No completely different from politicians.” “I hope Amb. MaryKay Carlson reported this to her superiors to cease the self-destruct of the Scotus.” It even rated a full column from Manila Abroad Press Membership prexy Tony Lopez (“The decline of Scotus,” Philippine Star, 6/18/24).
BUT WHAT NEEDS TO BE RESPONDED TO ARE: (1) “Why did you equate the removing of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno with the 2 unidentified justices who deserved their punishment?” And (2) “Did you neglect the dismaying choices involving Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Juan Ponce Enrile, and Jinggoy Estrada?”
To be clear, I didn’t equate these three choices. I cited them solely as a result of they exemplify how our Supreme Court docket disciplines its personal members, whereas the Supreme Court docket of america (Scotus) has but to take action.
I’ve written a number of occasions on what I contemplate to be, with due respect, the (1) plainly unconstitutional and (2) unduly harsh 8-6 resolution ousting Sereno. It’s plainly unconstitutional as a result of, in my humble opinion, Supreme Court docket justices could also be faraway from workplace solely through impeachment expressly canalized by our Structure and just for the grounds supplied therein, not through quo warranto.
It’s unduly harsh as a result of it was expressly made to be instantly executory. Thus, on the very day it was issued, the embarrassed and belittled erstwhile chief justice needed to depart the Supreme Court docket premises carrying all her private belongings. Selections convicting even essentially the most hardened criminals should not “instantly executory.” They might nonetheless file motions for reconsideration that might keep instant execution.
THOUGH I DISAGREED WITH THE DECISION, I have to comply with it and cite it as a sound judgment. So, too, whether or not I agree or not with every other resolution or order, together with these of Arroyo, Ponce Enrile, and Estrada, I have to respect and obey them. That’s the rule of regulation. As I at all times say, we are able to disagree with out being unpleasant and we are able to differ with out being troublesome.
Our justices and judges are required to render full-time service and to shed their political, enterprise, {and professional} connections. No aspect incomes. In my case, I dissolved my regulation agency once I ascended to the Court docket in 1995 to heed the Structure’s name for “confirmed competence, integrity, probity, and independence.” Whereas dissolution was, and remains to be, not required (solely resignation is), I assumed it was finest to shut the agency to stick to the Court docket’s supreme of being, like Caesar’s spouse, past suspicion.
Whereas the Gesmundo Court docket has not been examined by nation-shaking instances akin to these of the Concepcion Court docket on the ratification of the 1973 Structure, or of the Davide Court docket on stopping the Home of Representatives from impeaching the chief justice, or of the Panganiban Court docket on rejecting the “folks’s initiative” to alter our presidential system to the parliamentary, I’m nonetheless impressed by its stable effort to implement the “Strategic Plan for Judicial Improvements 2022-2027.”
AMAZING ALSO WERE THE COMMENTS on my June 3 and 10 columns relating to the grasp’s diploma scholarships granted to my three proficient grandkids by high US universities with out their making use of. Properly, this proud Lolo simply realized that a couple of days in the past, a fourth “apo,” Katrina P. Hannett, was provided scholarships for a grasp’s in bioethics.
I at all times knew Katrina was gifted. Rising up, she flew by way of her work, getting simply bored and good-naturedly inflicting hassle. In kindergarten, she taught a fellow 5-year-old methods to write in cursive script, a buddy who didn’t write in print but. In first grade, she was given difficult fourth-grade degree work to forestall her from doing her classmates’ duties for them. She did her homework mendacity the other way up on a settee, toes up on a wall, and hair cascading down the chair to the ground. Nonetheless, she acquired high grades and was elected scholar physique president (like her Lolo).
However what actually shone by way of was her compassion and humility. Her sibling was scolded for pushing Katrina round, however she was the primary to hug her crying offender. As an avid eighth-grade dancer, Katrina landed prima donna roles. Nonetheless, she pulled again to keep away from “dramas” among the many highschool dancers she beat. Now, as a younger grownup, she spends hours doing neighborhood service, even working as a medical volunteer at marathons, serving to save the lives of runners troubled with cardiac arrest.
No shock that Katrina aspires to be a compassionate physician. Previous to med college correct, she determined to pursue a grasp’s in bioethics, the research of moral, social, and authorized points that come up in medication. She is dedicated to offering care that’s each medically and ethically sound.
She’s been provided scholarships by high US universities together with Johns Hopkins, NYU, and Penn. She hasn’t made her remaining selection, perhaps nonetheless pondering real-world human points? However no downside. She is going to crack her mega-class dilemma quickly.
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