Friday, July 20, 2007 Lee: A summit of guts By Kelvin Lester Lee Babble On
I GUESS even the Supreme Court has had enough. After what seemed like countless murders of leftists, activists and journalists, nearly all of them unsolved, the Supreme Court has decided to act. It called for and recently held a summit on Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances. This is unprecedented. And to be honest, I think it took a lot of guts.
In a country where nearly every national institution suffers from a crisis of credibility and prestige, it was somewhat expected that someone would take a stand.
Even then, it was a surprise who finally made that stand --the last credible national institution in the country, the Supreme Court.
Traditionally, the judiciary does not act unless a controversy is brought to it in court. By constitutional fiat, the Supreme Court and the judiciary which it heads plays a passive role in our lives. Judicial activism is generally frowned upon.
But in an attempt to highlight the problem of over 800 unsolved extrajudicial killings and many now high-profile disappearances, the Supreme Court organized the summit in order to gather input on how the judiciary can expand its role in addressing these human rights violations.
No less than Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno is behind this move. He has placed the power and prestige of the Supreme Court in front of those who would attack our Civil Liberties. The Chief Justice had also earlier spoken to the press about possible changes in the rules of evidence and various other legal remedies to curb the problem. The summit was simply the most high-profile attempt of dealing with the situation.
In a way, the Supreme Court's action is a tacit statement that no one else can solve the killings and disappearances. Remember, this isn't exactly in the Court's job description, although if one were to liberally interpret the Constitution, it could arguably be said to come under the Court's judicial powers. Nevertheless, to have a Supreme Court actively trying to solve the problem of extrajudicial killings and disappearances, which is actually the job of the executive department, is a big loss of face for the executive.
The two day summit, which some participants said started a "conspiracy of hope," involved lectures on the first day and then had the participants break up into twelve working groups on the 2nd to discuss possible solutions to the problem. Each group was headed by a Justice of the Supreme Court, and each group worked within the framework of solving the problem legally. Some examples of the proposed solutions included amendments of the rules of court, or empowering the Commission on Human Rights, strengthening the witness protection program and defining, legally, the concepts of extrajudicial killings and command responsibility.
Although some pundits would say that the summit was simply a talk-fest with no action involved, they forget who called for the summit in the first place. The Supreme Court did, ladies and gentlemen. The Highest Court of the Land. With this institution organizing the summit, they are able to call attention to the extrajudicial killings. It is no coincidence that nearly all the headlines the last few days have been about the summit in Manila Hotel. The summit is news. And it may very well tip the scales in this war against our human rights.
It is, of course, no exaggeration to say that it took a lot of guts to do this. Think about it. The Chief Justice and his brethren have enough to do in the hallowed halls of justice. They have literally thousands of cases to review and very little time to deal with them. Yet the Court, led by Chief Justice Puno, still took on the difficult task of trying to solve the problem of extrajudicial killings, which may bring them headlong onto a collision course with Malacañang Palace.
It would seem that it wasn't just a summit on extrajudicial killings. It was a summit full of bravery and integrity. A summit full of hope and solutions. It was a summit of guts. And we now know the Chief Justice and his brethren have it in spades.
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I hear that Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno is in Davao until Friday, July 20. I do hope while he is in the city that he is able to meet our very own Vice Mayor Inday Sara Duterte. After graduating from law school and passing the bar, our Vice-Mayor served in the halls of the Supreme Court as a Court Attorney, before finally acceding to the wishes of her father to run, and eventually winning, as Vice-Mayor of the city. A meeting between the Vice-Mayor and the Chief Justice would be interesting indeed.
