Noynoy Aquino is a certified meddlesome president, interfering in affairs that are not his to interfere in, that is for certain.
Even as Noynoy always claims to respect the independence of the constitutional offices, he is always found to have interfered in their affairs, to the extent of directing them give him what he wants to have, which these constitutional officers generally give in to what he wants.
This time around, in a slip of the tongue, Noynoy admitted to lobbying the Integrated Bar of the Philippines to get the IBP to dismiss the disbarment cases against his loyal attack dog, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, which in turn would qualify her as a candidate for the top judicial post.
Of course he claimed it is his legal team that is helping De Lima in her disbarment case. But why should his legal team — and with presidential permission and order, be tasked to aid De Lima in her case pending in the IBP when she already has a slew of lawyers in her department to do that for her — at least in preparing her brief to the IBP to get her case dismissed? Or, short of that, she could easily have hired a private lawyer to help her prepare her arguments before the IBP board.
The reason Noynoy’s legal team was tasked by the Malacañang resident to directly take care of her in the IBP is that a private lawyer would hardly carry weight or clout in trying to get the disbarment cases against De Lima dismissed, while the Palace lawyers, bearing the presidential stamp would naturally have the right clout to get the disbarment cases dismissed quickly. Or so they believed.
It is perhaps accurate to state that Noynoy and his legal team  succeeded in getting the disbarment cases against De Lima dismissed  as the IBP’s investigating officer quickly dismissed the cases against Noy’s Justice Secretary, without even following certain IBP rules, as apparently, that investigating officer did not have the authority to simply dismiss these cases. But he did, which points to the Noynoy lobby having worked on the IBP probe officer.
The reason given by the IBP in its announcement last week  that the cases against De Lima will be pursued and will undergo a full blown investigation perhaps showed just how sneaky the Noynoy legal team was in getting these cases dismissed.
As stated by the IBP Board of Governors, it rejected the dismissal of its investigating officer of the cases and as a board, ordered a full blown investigation.
Reading between the lines, it is evident that Noynoy’s legal team got to the investigating officer for the dismissal of the case, but failed anyway to get these dismissed.
Why did Noynoy want the disbarment cases against De Lima dismissed? Elementary, Watsonites, the dismissal of these cases by the IBP would automatically qualify De Lima as a nominee by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), which will then include her in the shortlist to be submitted to Noynoy.
As her name is listed, it stands to reason that she, whom Noynoy had been lobbying for, would be chosen and appointed by Noynoy as the Chief Justice.
And don’t anybody think that the Noynoy lobbying stopped at the IBP.  The lobby now goes to the JBC for its members, the majority of whom are all his appointees and allies, to suspend the JBC rules on disqualifying nominees who have pending admnistrative and criminal cases, both of which De Lima has, unless of course, Noynoy’s Ombudsman, Conchita Carpio-Morales has been ordered by Noynoy to also dismiss De Lima’s criminal cases in her office. Did she?
Noynoy truly has been prostituting all the government agencies and is now in control of even the so-called independent and constitutional offices, whether they be the Commission on Audit, the Ombudsman, the Anti-Money Laundering Council, the Central Bank, the Commission on Elections, the House of Representatives, some members of the Senate and not to forget, the Supreme Court (SC) itself.
When Noynoy got Congress to impeach and convict Chief Justice Renato Corona, he said he merely wanted to reclaim the SC for the people.
Wrong. He wants to reclaim the high court for himself, for his control and his protection after he steps out of Malacañang, which is why he wants a young outsider like De Lima to be his SC chief justice, hence the illegal lobbying.