Speak Out: Character Flaw

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

I DECIDED to send in contribution to this paper again because I am alarmed. I feel the urge to express my opinion on relevant issues involving the two equal branches of our government today.

On Monday, the 1st National Criminal Justice Summit concluded in Manila Hotel. It was a gathering of judges, prosecutors, justice officials, law enforcers, corrections administrators, legal scholars and other stakeholders to propose solutions to the problems of the Philippine criminal justice system. I know this fact, having read the invitation of Secretary de Lima extended to my boss.

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Among the national leaders invited to give their messages were no less than President Benigno Aquino III (P’noy) and Chief Justice Renato Corona (CJ). What alarmed me was the insolent speech and direct attack of the President against the person of CJ Corona in particular in which the sting spread to the entire Judiciary in general.

Of course, I considered the remark rude and uncalled for which was least expected of a President. He was improperly dressed in a proper party. His speech writer may have missed Jonathan Swift’s definition of style as “proper words in proper places.”

I am apprehensive that such harangue intended to embarrass or humiliate the Chief Justice before the erudite crowd sends a very damaging message to the people and may alter the youth’s mindset and values suggesting that we can simply insult and disrespect people.

As a youth leader half of my existence, I confess that respect is a very important ingredient in running an organization, more so in decision-making where consensus is needed and where every opinion matters, whether I agree or not. And so when I heard the President of the Republic aspersing the appointment of CJ Corona and casting doubts to his impartiality in his very presence and in public, I was sad. Pnoy was throwing a game at which two can play. Simply put, he is retaliating to CJ Corona’s perceived biases in handling the Arroyo cases. Could CJ be faulted having been appointed? Could Pnoy be faulted having been elected? But could he be faulted having insulted and humiliated CJ and the Judiciary? The fair mind I’m sure would not approve the insulting but Pnoy’s entourage were rejoicing.

I leave the legal intricacies of the Arroyos to the legal luminaries. What I am most concern is the behavior that Pnoy, a leader, an elected national leader, is demonstrating and its implication to the young people. When he decided to swear in as President of the Republic before Justice Carpio-Morales instead to CJ Corona, the incident caught everybody’s attention. But of course, Pnoy deserved respect as to whom he wanted to administer his oath. Swearing to Justice Carpio-Morales was not an issue, not even an indicia of disrespect to CJ but later on, the said act was found to be a foreshadowing of a tragic attitude Pnoy exemplifies, defiant but lesser than a tyrant. What happened in Manila Hotel was a revelation of who’s who among our leaders maintain their civility and statesmanship in the midst of adversity.

When he was elected to the presidency, I had high hopes together with my fellow youth leaders, thanking heaven for a new-bred of leader whom almost everybody adored as a Jedi who shall serve and protect the republic, democracy and respect of law included and his much publicized fight against corruption. But when the Arroyo case was finally hatched, a real character of Aquino was exposed, his lack of respect not only of the rule of law but of persons whom he considers as hindrances in his trudging of the “tuwid na daan.” But I think Pnoy, like Dante’s Inferno, in the middle of his journey, found himself in the dark forest for he wandered off the straight path.

Aquino’s obsession in bringing Gloria to justice to the point of injuring the latter’s constitutional rights is actually a dimming of the streetlamps of the tuwid na daan which we may find ourselves groping sooner to a rerouted principles of democracy. I am not a fan of Gloria. I for one hated her during her reign due to her excesses but disrespecting her rights is much to be debated. Disrespecting the Supreme Court before Pnoy’s “boss” is a greatest tragedy that strikes our democracy yet many of my fellow Filipinos glorify and dignify the act of the president and approving his maligning the Chief Justice and the Judiciary. We are now probably experiencing a distorted sense of direction, a twisted values orientation.

The problem of Pnoy in which we also have complicity is that he already convicted Gloria before she was charged and presumed the decision of the Court as bias before having read it mainly because it was handed down by Gloria’s appointees. We look at the ponente but not the ponencia. We attack and denigrate the ponente instead of his ponencia. Besmirching the Court itself is actually an undermining of the wisdom and independence of a co-equal branch. Is it because most of the SC Justices are appointees of Gloria they cannot make a sound and impartial decision and thus should not be respected? If we are to dictate who should and how to decide court cases, we might as well make another Supreme Court.

Pnoy’s unrestraint statement and treatment against CJ Corona is purely hubris. He is only projecting superiority. He does not care banging heads with the Judiciary as long as his obsession to put the little girl to jail is realized by hook or by crook. This is the kind of leadership I read from Pnoy’s words and deeds which, to my mind, is not worthy of emulation by the succeeding leaders. There is a need to reexamine and reconsider his leadership style and vision. He should introspect deeper with his values intact, not necessarily perfect, if it is to mean that he is not an accidental leader. Remember that oftentimes, the words coming from the mouth of the President become the policy or become the rule. I’m tempted to believe that the more Pnoy attacks the Court, the more he shows his weakness. As Montaigne puts it, “he who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.” What he cannot get legally, he takes it personally which is an open invitation to anarchy and impunity to disobey laws or defy court orders because one does not like it and the President is doing it anyway.

Incidentally, last November 12, 2011, I was one of the judges in the 2nd Voice of the Youth Oratorical Competition (Divisional Level), a joint endeavor of STI College and the National Youth Commission, held at SM Atrium. This year’s theme is “Rediscovering Filipino Values: I see. I Act. I advocate.” The champion was from Bugo National High School, the 2nd was from Lourdes College High School and the third from Sacred Heart of Jesus Montessori School.

What made the competition memorable was not the eloquence of the orators but the protest of two mentors. The most vocal was the principal of a prestigious private high school located in the uptown south. She is a Ph.D. degree holder I supposed. After the awarding, she approached me and shouted, “Your decision is bias, same as last year.”

As chairman of the board of judges along with Dr. Maristela Sy of MUST and another from DepEd, I explained the basis and cited the criteria but my reasoning did not contain her until she raised her voice. I just listened. After delivering her invectives, I said to her: “Ma’am, I know you are aware of today’s theme. Many of the orators mentioned respect as one principal values along with honesty, hardwork that every Filipino should possess. We have rendered our decision and I think we are entitled to a certain respect whether you like it or not.” She went away murmuring.

Our President may have the best intentions and plans for this country in the next five years and we can only hope that he may have the correct values in carrying and leading us to his tuwid na daan. As John Maxwell says, “everything falls and rises on leadership.”

(Rhobert C. Maestre is the president of Mindanao Youth Volunteer Corps Inc. and is a recipient of the 2008 Outstanding Youth Advocate Award)