Leila de Lima, Noynoy’s chosen for the chief justice position, is out of the race, unless of course, the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) starts changing its rules, which will give the body a really black mark that it can never hope to erase.
It would be extremely difficult for the JBC to put De Lima’s name on the shortlist, given the fact that the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) has already stated that the disbarment cases against her are to be fully investigated.
Besides, it wasn’t just the disbarment cases that brought her down. She still has criminal cases filed against her before the Ombudsman — unless of course, Noynoy’s appointed Ombudsman also cleared her, which is near impossible, since clearing De Lima would negate the chances of her cousin, acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, of becoming the next chief justice.
Still, it  was clear that Noynoy wanted to appoint De Lima for the post of CJ, as he claimed, through his spokesman, that the disbarment cases against his Justice secretary were all politically motivated. When it comes to Noy’s protected species, charges are politically motivated. When it comes to his political foes, he immediately convicts them of corruption.
See how they in the Palace come up with charges that have no basis in fact while they slam the media for making statements or reports that are not based on facts?
Apparently, the Palace did work on the IBP’s investigating official, as the IBP appointed investigator recommended the dismissal of the case and it would have cleared De Lima for the CJ job, except that the IBP Board of Governors rejected the appointed investigator’s dismissal of the case and forthwith rejected De Lima’s bid to have the disbarment cases against her dismissed.
The IBP board in a resolution, ordered the full-blown investigation into two of three cases against De Lima, stemming from her defiance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court (SC) in November on the implementation of De Lima’s hold departure order on Gloria Arroyo, as well as her tirades against the then CJ.
De Lima not only lost the opportunity to be appointed to the high judiciary seat, but she may well be disbarred, which will result in her being out of the Justice post, since that position calls for a lawyer, which she won’t be, if she is disbarred.
But a lesson could be learned by her and other lawyers, including the presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda.
Just because they are alter egos of the Malacañang resident who is a vindictive spoiled brat and who, moreover, loves to brand his political foes as corrupt and evil, even when he has no evidence with which to call them thus, there is no reason for them — especially as they are lawyers — not only to disobey the SC rulings but also insult justices by branding them as corrupt and evil, but also to respect the rule of law and not insult the high court by calling its CJ names.
Calling them corrupt tyrants and evil, Noynoy should be reminded, is not fact, but speculation on his part, which should tell him that while he criticizes media for their criticisms and negativism of him and his administration’s follies, claiming that they should stick to facts and not speculate, he does the same, and worse, he is hardly a positive person, but a thoroughly negative one when it comes to lambasting his foes.
Of course, non-lawyers are not covered by the rule of obedience to the high court, not are they subject to disbarment, as lawyers are. They can criticize the high court and its justices, and even expose whatever there is to expose and that is fair game, for non-lawyers.
The problem with De Lima is that she believed that, as the alter ego of Noynoy, she could do anything, including disobeying the SC and violating the Constitution, as well as heap insults against a Noynoy foe, not seeing far enough to realize that once the CJ is impeached, the position becomes vacant and as she has been such a loyal lapdog of Noynoy, she would get the thumbs up from him in her bid to become the next CJ. She didn’t see the disbarment cases coming.
She is done for.