Supreme Court has been tamed.

See - Alvarez signals conquest of Supreme Court

"x x x.

Alvarez signals conquest of Supreme Court
By: John Nery- @jnery_newsstand
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:09 AM January 09, 2018

x x x.

I read Alvarez’s Jan. 3 statements in two ways. One, it is only a matter of time before Alvarez takes the battle directly to Pimentel, in the same way he has moved against former allies like Rep. Tonyboy Floirendo.

And two: Alvarez now knows that the Supreme Court has been tamed. He is confident enough that a majority of justices in the Court will side with his position on the question of joint or separate voting that he can simply say the Court will decide. This was what struck me the most in his statements, that he did not feel the need to demean or threaten the Supreme Court on an issue that is make-or-break for him personally and politically.

Consider his previous attacks on the Court. When the Court last June agreed to review President Duterte’s martial law proclamation (following very clear instructions in the Constitution), an affronted Alvarez questioned the tribunal’s right to hear the case in the first place. Both chambers of Congress had passed resolutions supporting the proclamation (something that was not in fact required explicitly by the same Constitution). The original Filipino of his line-in-the-sand statement is worth quoting in full: “Wala silang karapatan para diktahan ang Kongreso kung ano’ng dapat naming gawin.”

Let that sink in: “They don’t have the right to dictate what Congress should do.”

But the justiciable issue of whether the Senate and the House of Representatives convened as a constituent assembly must vote jointly or separately is an appeal to the Court to tell Congress what to do. Why the change in attitude?

Because the President’s (and the Speaker’s) politics of intimidation and practical accommodation is working. After a majority justified the imposition of martial law in all of Mindanao with an obsequious decision, after sitting justices played their public part in assailing a chief justice facing impeachment, the Court joined the House in rubber-stamphood. Achievement unlocked!

x x x."