THE Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the national association of lawyers, on Wednesday denounced the bid of the Palace and the House of Representatives to exercise political control over the Judiciary by ramming through the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
“As a sentinel of freedom and democracy, the IBP considers the breakneck and high-handed impeachment delivered by the House as a menace and an open subversion of the constitutional prerogatives of the Supreme Court as the final interpreter of the law and the arbiter of rights,” the group said in a statement.
The Palace and its allies in the House denied the lawyers’ charges.
IBP president Roan Libarios warned that the impeachment trod on the powers and prerogatives of the 15-member bench as the final interpreter of law and arbiter of judicial disputes.
By violating the equal-protection clause, Congress reduced the impeachment from a mechanism of accountability to a political tool to prosecute and even persecute the chief justice and other magistrates, Libarios said.
His group said the House, acting on the whim of President Benigno Aquino III, arrogated unto itself the power to interpret the law over and above the Supreme Court by impeaching the chief justice based on the decisions issued by the Supreme Court.
“If the Supreme Court is emasculated by partisan actions, to whom shall the people turn to against excesses by those who are in power?” Libarios said.
The IBP said the grounds invoked to impeach Corona referred to the collegial decisions of the Supreme Court.
“In all of the cited cases, the record shows that the chief justice was not the ponente [author] but merely concurred in the majority or minority opinion. Neither did the chief justice flip-flop or change his position in any of these cases,” the group said.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda maintained Malacañang’s hard line against the chief justice.
“The independence of the Judiciary has long been bartered away by Chief Justice Corona,” he said.
“We are demanding the restoration of the independence of the Judiciary from his patron.”
In the House, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said Congress had no interest in exercising political control over the Judiciary.
Majority Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II brushed aside the IBP’s allegations.
“Perhaps the current leadership of the IBP is not aware of the constitutional provision that vests the House of Representatives with its power of impeachment,” Gonzales told the Manila Standard.
“The fact that the President showed an interest in it does not change anything.” With Maricel Cruz"
