Over and out

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

04/19/2008

Chief Justice Reynato Puno squelched all talk of his rumored “early retirement” through a resignation with his prompt denial statement.

An on-line magazine, Newsbreak, reported the rumored Puno resignation, which it was claimed to have been due to the Chief Justice’s frustration over the majority of the magistrates being under Gloria Arroyo’s control, as seen in their decision to uphold Gloria’s executive privilege via the Romulo Neri case.

While the magazine quoted sources consisting of unnamed former high court justices and a court insider, all saying Puno had vented his frustration and his intention to retire early, there was no confirmation in that report that the conversations indeed took place, even when the Senate president was also mentioned in the same report as one of the persons with whom Puno had spoken about his early retirement.

Quite frankly, the Newsbreak report was much too speculative and unsubstantiated.

But what comes to mind is that the early retirement story may have been leaked by Malacañang allies, and even by the Gloria justices themselves, as a way of easing out Puno from the Supreme Court to tighten Gloria’s hold on the SC, while again offering one justice who will be retiring earlier than Puno the top judiciary post, after which another Gloria loyalist justice will be named by her to ensure her total protection long after she is out of Malacañang.

It can hardly be denied that with the decision of the high court upholding Gloria’s executive privilege even when clearly, a probable crime was involved and even as the system of checks and balance was completely eliminated, the public ire is directed mainly on the majority justices, and not Puno or the five other dissenting justices.

Stated differently, Puno and the five dissenting justices come off smelling like a rose, while the nine justices who voted along Malacañang’s line are being excoriated by the general public.

It is really no different from the time of the Marcos martial law reign when the high court justices were seen as the puppets of Marcos for always toeing the Marcos Malacañang line. It was then Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee, a dissenter, who came off smelling like a rose as he was perceived to be fighting for the rights and freedoms of the Filipinos.

Hardly anyone — least of all the justices — wants to be publicly cast as villains, but as long as Puno remains in the highest judicial post and continues to keep up with his position of upholding and defending the Constitution and protecting the rights of the Filipinos under a clearly undemocratic regime, the Gloria puppets in the high court will continue to be excoriated by the people whenever a ruling goes against the constitutional grain, and worse, perceived as being too partial to Gloria, to the point of providing her the “legal” excuse to commit more crimes with the majority providing her and her aides immunity.

Getting Puno to resign may provide Gloria the power to fully control the high court. So the institutional court will go lower and lower in esteem and trust, but would Gloria and her justices care a whit? Not likely, because if they had any thought of saving their institution, the Constitution and the democratic system, they would not have voted the way they did as clearly, the majority decision was completely flawed and Filipinos saw through their partiality to Malacañang.

Already, there was the Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez who quickly claimed that if the Newsbreak report were true, this would mean that Puno was pressuring the justices through his talk of resignation.

But how can that be called his way of pressuring them when at least three justices are salivating for Puno’s position and would be happy to have him resign? And why bring this angle up?

Still, there is also the possibility that Puno could have, in chats with a former justice, poured out his sentiments over the majority decision in a moment of sheer frustration. But to spill this frustration to a Senate president and inform him of his intention to resign is a bit much. Puno has been in the high court for over a decade and would know how and when to be discreet.

Whatever was the intent of the leakers, what is clear is that Puno has categorically stated that he will not resign or retire before his time is up.

Whatever the ploy was, it just didn’t succeed.

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