Keep politicians out of Supreme Court | Inquirer Opinion

Keep politicians out of Supreme Court | Inquirer Opinion

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With the removal of Corona as Chief Justice, there is now a scramble among members of the judiciary, lawyers, and politicians to be appointed as his replacement. President Aquino has set the correct first step: the Chief Justice should come from inside the Supreme Court. Personally, I think the seniority rule that has been followed for decades should be continued to avoid infighting and intrigues among the associate justices.

There is another reform that I propose when it comes to appointing associate justices: that appointees should come only from the bench, the academe, and the ranks of practicing lawyers. Politicians should be excluded. Politicians have a tendency to spoil a basket of good apples.

In recent years, more and more politicians have been appointed to the Supreme Court. There was a time when about a third of the justices were former congressmen, senators and Cabinet members.

The high court must be above suspicion at all times to maintain the people’s trust and confidence in the rule of law. How can it be above suspicion when there are ex-politicians among its members? Politicians make a lot of debts during their terms in public office and it is not far-fetched for some of these people to whom the justices owe debts to collect on these favors when a case where they have an interest reaches the high court. And as the Corona affair has shown, the case is resolved in favor of the friend even if the merits of the case favor the other side. That would make Lady Justice cry in shame.

Hopefully, that would not happen too often. But like one rotten apple that contaminates a whole basket of good ones, just one such case will destroy the people’s faith in the judiciary. The best thing to do is not to appoint a politician to the high court. Politicians have most of the privileges in the government—pork barrel, allowances of all sorts, power and influence, appointment of relatives and friends to cushy government positions, award of fat contracts to favorite companies, etc. Let’s limit their privileges to the Supreme Court.

Besides, the entry of politicians into the high court disillusions the members of the lower courts. The ambition of every member of the bench is to be appointed justice of the high court. That prompts them to perform better in the lower courts so that they would be promoted to higher courts and, ultimately, to the Supreme Court. That ideal is destroyed when outsiders elbow out judges from the high court. They become cynical and just enrich themselves as much as they can in their present positions. No use aspiring for a higher position.

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