Noynoy says the Palace will be appointing the next chief justice who can best carry out judicial reforms.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad was quoted as saying that Noynoy “will be looking for a prospective chief justice who has the integrity, competence, political will and commitment to pursue and put into effect these reforms,” as he said that judicial reform is among the key pillars of the President’s “reform agenda.”
“The President did not support the impeachment and subsequent conviction of the former Chief Justice and invest political capital in the process only to end up with a chief justice who is unable to follow through effectively, and in a sustained way on this reform process,” Abad added.
But why should judicial reforms even be the business of the executive  department, especially as this specific department can’t even seem to reform itself?
As far as the Constitution goes, the three branches of government are co-equal and independent of each other. This means that the President should keep his hands off the judiciary — especially the Supreme Court (SC), which he has already prostituted, after Noynoy had its Chief Justice impeached and convicted. Proof of that statement is the fact of the favorable rulings concerning Noynoy and his executives--including the SC’s flip-flop on a ruling to favor him.
Noynoy has been interfering in affairs that are not within his province, among which are even bribing the congressmen to impeach a sitting CJ who dared to go against him — especially in the Hacienda Luisita ruling as well as actively lobbying the Integrated Bar of the Philippines for the dismissal of the disbarment cases against his first preference for CJ, Justice Chief Leila de Lima, as well as lobbying the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to get De Lima on the shortlist. Short of that, he also made sure that his allies in the JBC would include his second best bets on the list, for Noynoy to appoint that candidate on the list.
Truth is, Noynoy is not out to appoint a chief justice who possesses integrity, competence, political will and commitment to pursue and put into effect the claimed reforms Noynoy wants the CJ and the SC justices to follow Noynoy’s orders, as stated by Abad. Noynoy and his boys are out to get a CJ who will do their bidding — and that won’t even be on reforms at all, but on what high court decisions Noynoy wants.
Why would Noynoy push De Lima’s inclusion on the list, if he truly wanted a chief justice with integrity, who is independent and competent, not to mention political will, when De Lima, who is his lackey and has not proved her independence at all throughout her time in the Department of Justice, apart from which, complaints, cases and motions for review have hardly been moving. She does not even appear to be knowledgeable about the law and the Constitution.
Why for instance does Noynoy want what one can call a junior justice, who has been in the SC for less than two years, and who has shown too many times, her partiality to Noynoy and is moreover a very divisive justice, to be voted upon by his allies in the JBC? For that matter, why is Solicitor-General Francis Jardeleza being pushed by Noynoy and his  JBC allies? How the JBC members voted already shows who among those on the list would be Noynoy’s preferred candidates. Why should he even want to return the list, when he has the names he wants in that list?
And if these are who make up the choice of Noynoy, then obviously, he does not want an independent or even reform-minded CJ, but a lackey presiding over the high court.
In too many ways, Noynoy has shown himself to be on his way of being a dictator, wanting to control every branch of government. He does not want an independent SC, nor an independent Congress. He wants to control all.
And the sad part of it all for democracy, is that these same independent institutions appear willing to be at his beck and call.