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President Aquino's appointment of the next chief justice of the Supreme Court will set the tone for an independent judiciary.
Whether he likes it or not, his next appointee will be suspected of being beholden to him, no matter whom he or she may be. To obviate this predicament, it is of utmost importance that the president restore the seniority tradition followed by presidents in the appointment of the chief justice, with the infamous exception of Gloria Arroyo's appointment of Renato Corona.
That is, Aquino must appoint the most senior among incumbent justices as the next chief justice. Even President Erap, for all his shortcomings, followed the tradition by appointing Hilario Davide, then the most senior justice, as chief justice. This seniority tradition has served the Supreme Court well, if we are to judge by the high esteem with which chief justices have been held even during the days of the conjugal dictatorship.
And rightly so, because the seniority tradition, inter alia, has resulted in the following advantages: 1) It insulates the position of chief justice from political jockeying among the nominees vetted by the Judicial and Bar Council, or their patrons;
2) The mechanism for succession is based on tradition, and not on subjective preferences. Hence, the natural suspicion that there was a quid-pro-quo arrangement sub rosa between the president and his appointee is truncated, if not minimized. The chief justice is thus invested with an aura akin to that of Caesar's wife in that there is never any penumbra of a doubt as to how he got the position;
3) Even under Civil Service rules, the next-in-rank rule is followed in the promotion of public officials to vacant positions, so as to prevent favoritism by the appointing authority, maintain professionalism and prevent demoralization in the organization. It is now up to President Aquino to restore the faith of the people in the judiciary by restoring the seniority tradition in his appointment of the next chief justice.
Gloria Arroyo trivialized this age-old tradition which had served our judiciary well. And look what happened because of her myopic, selfish actions. The Supreme Court, on account of the perceived partiality of her appointee, among other laments, was plunged into a nadir of obloquy and disrespect this nation had never experienced before, culminating in the unprecedented spectacle of impeachment of the chief justice.
PNoy, by reviving the seniority tradition, will henceforth be judged as a statesman by history, because he would be restoring the independence of the chief justice. Future presidents will think twice before disregarding it again. If, on the other hand, he disregards this tradition, he is no better than GMA. He will be following and institutionalizing a bad precedent set forth by a bad president. Sad to say, he will become the monster he detests. We urge our beloved Pnoy to do right by the judiciary. The nation expects no less.
Dan Amosin is a practicing lawyer in California and a faculty member of the University of the East in Manila l980 to l986; l979 graduate of the UP College of Law; former senior editor of The Philippine Collegian l975-l976.
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