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EDITORIAL | A fresh new start for Lady Justice
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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
The online news portal of TV5
Maria Lourdes Sereno is the first woman Chief Justice of the Republic of the Philippines, but there is palpably greater consciousness and fanfare over her relative youth. Rightly so. The real significance of Sereno’s appointment has more to do with age, not gender. At 52, Sereno can potentially preside over the Supreme Court for 18 years – affecting the course of three, in fact four, different Presidencies.
As to her qualifications, she is qualified. The Constitution says so. Anybody who questions that now must be eyed with suspicion.
So on to the point:
Unqualifiedly, this is a bold appointment by President Benigno Aquino III. For good or bad, for better or for worse, Sereno’s impact, assuming she lasts, will be very profound.
House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte on Friday called on the public to rally around Sereno, to support her. Not that she needs us. As former Makati congressman and InterAksyon.com columnist Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr., pointed out, Chief Justice Sereno does not need anybody’s support. Not yours and not even the President’s. She is Chief Magistrate until she retires at 70 or unless she is impeached. She has, in other words, 18 years to set a course not just for the judiciary and Philippine Justice, but for rule of law in the Philippines.
The appointment of a 52-year-old to a lifetime position insulates the Supreme Court from the executive over the next three administrations beyond the current. Tradition has been a much-abused word in the Philippines, from the Armed Forces to the National Police and to the judiciary; it has been shorthand for expediency, manifested in a rigodon system of appointments at the most benign – a cheapening of crucial assignments – or then in a series of politically-colored, and therefore short-sighted, moves. Sereno’s appointment breaks a tradition of seniority, but the greater calculation is that providing a young leadership over the long term would allow the Supreme Court not to reset, but to regain some footing, some direction, and ultimately, some stature.
The hope is that Sereno can, among other things, reestablish precedence as the basis for decisions. Her reported and supposed willingness to testify against impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona on the High Court’s alleged “flip-flopping” on cases would point to a disdain precisely for an unpredictability not only in decisions, but in the very behavior of the Court.
Decisions can change, jurisprudence can be qualified and rectified, to be sure. But Courts must abide by the law and by its own rules, and not simply change the latter when it suits a Chief Justice to second- or third-guess a case.
She has also demonstrated, in one of her most recent and celebrated dissents, unbridled dismay at anything less than a rigorous standard for the Supreme Court’s – and every Associate Justice’s – intellectual capacity and record, holding that Justices should not only be not plagiarists, but loyalists and sticklers to the Constitution. Wise enough at least to even understand what they’re copying, and for crying out loud, to not misrepresent cut-and-pasted thoughts. Which is asking for the least. Sereno, in other words, and by some accounts, thinks some of her peers as…not on her level. We will have to agree, but let’s not get started on that.
Sereno’s youth and personality, the point is, will have the potential to make the Court better, and/or get the better of her. There are grumblings among the old men of the Court, quite certainly. Let them have that much. Sereno’s circumstance of age will be both her advantage and disadvantage. Over the short term, she will be tested and challenged by the older justices. As time passes, however, she will get more experienced, savvier in dealing with the Justices, stronger, and ultimately more influential.
The senior make seniority sound like a hard-earned credential. In truth, it comes naturally and literally, as easy as taking a piss, or, put another way, as effortless as a senior having an involuntary leak.
With Sereno’s ascension, President Aquino has one more Associate Justice position to fill. The Chief Justice will have aged already. And just like that, so will this young Supreme Court.
Which brings us to a final point of consideration. There is one thing that Filipinos have arguably done consistently well ever since EDSA, and that is this: They have consistently and steadily voted younger. It is possible to chart a downward slope in the average age of our executives – from Presidents down to governors and mayors – and even among our legislators. Marcos had deprived the country a generation of leaders – or a generation of leaders the opportunity to make an impact at the prime of their capacities, at the most progressive of their thinking.
Since EDSA there has been a shaking of the chaff, and society has unconsciously been seeking a more natural level for government, moving away from the gerontocracy spawned by Martial Law.
The judiciary is not of this youth movement, and by the nature of life-time appointments, it will never really be. But that is not to say it cannot benefit from a clear new start.
That is what Sereno represents.
Justice in the Philippines is seen as slow, corrupt, inefficient, inconsistent, and inaccessible. On every count, the new Chief Justice has the opportunity, and nearly two decades, to address each of those valid criticisms, and to set the Supreme Court on a path of regained respect and independence.
Critics can only carp on a mere statement of fact: She is an Aquino appointee. But that is beyond obvious. It was inevitable. Every Chief Justice is a presidential appointee.
So you read that right. Sereno has the opportunity to secure and strengthen the Supreme Court’s independence. Saved that word for last. If we are wrong on this point now, we’ll call a spade a spade. But we’ll still be right in 15 out of 18 years.
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