“The Supreme Court can force you to eat shit, but it can’t force you to like it.” —Philip Gilmore
Manuel Quezon III ended his column last Monday with these words, “…the game plan of Aquino’s critics is to downplay the significance of his mandate and to create artificial controversies like the chief-justice appointment. They cannot allow the meaning of this mandate to sink in: Our first indubitably legitimate government in nearly a decade.”
Quezon was right on the mark. The outgoing administration knows and fears the consequences if the meaning of that mandate is allowed to take root.
I was buying a lotto ticket in Cavite last Friday when I overheard a couple talking about the outcome of the election. The man behind me was telling his companion, “Mabuti nanalo si Noynoy ngayon makukulong na rin si Gloria (It’s good Noynoy won, Gloria will finally be sent to prison).”
I smiled and then asked the man if he had heard that Aquino was considering taking his oath of office before a barrio captain instead of the Chief Justice of the Philippines. He told me he had not. But he added, “Maganda kung gawin niya yun. Isang parangal ’yan sa maliliit na tulad namin (It would be a good idea if he does that. It’s an honor for the little people like us.)”
I must admit that I never saw it that way. I was so caught up in the debate over Aquino’s oath-taking that I forgot all about the meaning of his election. But I was in good company; the dean of the UP College of Law was also distracted by the manufactured crisis. He weighed in on the symbolism of the oath-taking: “He does so because of the symbolisms of that ritual. The oath—prescribed by the Constitution—is administered by the head of an autonomous, coequal department of government charged with the preservation of the words found in the Constitution of the Republic.”
The dean is right up to a point but the man in the lotto line reminded me of the deeper symbolism in the oath-taking: legitimacy in a democracy comes from the ground up, not from the top down. It is conferred not imposed. And so it goes with the appointment of Renato Corona.
I feel bad for Corona. He is not an evil man even though, and this comes not from me but from one of her closest confidants, the one who appointed him is. He is not Gloria’s stooge even though his voting record makes him look that way.
If Aquino had been the one who appointed Corona, the debate over his fitness for the job would have been on his track record and views on critical constitutional issues, not on his cozy relationship with Gloria Arroyo. Corona knows it that’s why he told the media, “Everything I say now will be just words but watch me.”
Corona may yet turn out to be a great Chief Justice but unfortunately he is tainted, branded as someone legally appointed but without legitimacy. And he will always be perceived as the Chief Justice who was appointed to serve as Gloria Arroyo’s get-out-of-jail card.
Corona is made of better stuff than Gloria Arroyo so I don’t understand why he accepted her appointment. She gave him the chief magistrate’s robe but robbed him of his dignity. She did him like a burglar who, after breaking into his house and stealing all his valuables, raided his refrigerator and defecated on his kitchen floor. And he is the clueless homeowner who comes upon his burglarized home, sees the feces on his kitchen floor, and cries out, “Thank God, she didn’t take everything; at least she left something behind.” For all his years of service, that’s how Gloria repays him and he appreciates it. Sad.
Popularity: 1% [?]
what a great day it will be for the common tao not to be enamored by the politics of Hyatt 10, Kamag-anak inc. and The Firm.
“The dean is right up to a point but the man in the lotto line reminded me of the deeper symbolism in the oath-taking: legitimacy in a democracy comes from the ground up,”
uhmm… thats why we have elections — coz of the “legitimacy is from the ground up” argument.
instead of accepting the guy’s argument, you should tell him about UP Law school dean’s argument. Enlighten him naman.
swearing in by the head of the judiciary means something.
at the end of the day, if noynoy insists on not being sworn in by the CJ, its ok. he has said that, regardless of corona’s appointment, noy recognized the SC.
The problem is he said this in a freakin’ press con. By refusing to do this in the swearing in, Noy gives the IMPRESSION that he doesnt recognize the SC.
fact is, corona IS the CJ. fact is, he accepted. fact is, he aint gonna change his mind.
all that means its noynoy’s play now. the question is: what is the best thing for HIM to do.
noy/LP can say that the decision is wrong. That they’ll fight it legally. via policy. change the law. charter change — whatever…
But not using the SC CJ for the swearing in makes for an inauspicious beginning between 2 co-equal branches. its deepening of partisanship that noynoy is in a unique position to stop.
wow, pomp ang pageantry does mean something to you.
if I had my way, I’d just have the president-elect read his oath in his back garden, with no full dress parade that costs taxpayer money.
(actually, there are some countries where the swearing in is done this way, no CJ/lackey to say ‘repeat after me’, i’ve forgotten which and i do not care to look it up because these ceremonies are trivial to me.)
Interesting point. If the oath is going to be ignored anyhow, why is it such a big deal? For the life of me, I can’t figure out how so many bright minds, successful people, top notchers or whatever, cannot grasp the constitutional principle of “Public Trust”. That is what drove men who wrote the US Constitution, and the words are in the Philippine Constitution, but the MEANING appears to impress no one here. Make that the obsession and all this ego parade can be laid to rest in favor of the people in line with MB.
Joe
“wow, pomp ang pageantry does mean something to you.”
i think we disagree on what pomp and pageantry means. we both agree on limiting cost, but thats beside the point i was making.
in nation building and politics, symbolism, working together, does matter because its the stuff that brings different people together as a people, to give identity.
it doesnt have to be a people/nation. even smaller societies create traditions for precisely this purpose. the academe if full of traditions that are important, and have meaning deeper than the face value of the act itself. even stuff like the convocation speech (recall the MVP issue) — who says it, what is said, has meaning. thats why ateneans felt so strongly about the MVP issue.
in a sense, ur right. IF noynoy decides to push through, it wont be the end of the world. but the point is, he would make a better start IF he decides to rise above it in a formal way.
@joe
what do u mean, the oath is going to be ignored anyhow? clarify?
“symbolism, working together, does matter because its the stuff that brings different people together as a people, to give identity.”
It’s precisely this very Asian/Pinoy emphasis on symbolism that I hate.
…and all that ‘identity’ chuva eklat.
People should come together for the sake of coming together for the common good. It’s 2010 and we are still a poor country. We have no money for symbolism.
GabbyD,
I mean the raft of corruption charges and self-dealing that has the entrenched powerful taking care of themselves and their cronies first and the country if it is convenient. If you want facts, I would just have you look at the condition of the country, the sum and substance of the priorities since Marcos. You can also look to fertilizer, bags of cash, ZTE, WTO and ineffectiveness of Ombudsman and Judiciary. If the public were first, these things would be dealt with forthrightly.
Joe
GabbyD,
I would add, as it pertains to Mr. Aquino, he has a choice: continue the trade of favors or go for skill. I am not liking what I am reading about people jockeying for power positions, as if the President were a puppet and not capable of driving forward with the management of the country with the public interest first. If he cannot toss of the shackles of favors given and granted, it will be a long six years, just more of the same . . .
Joe
GabbyD,
There are two valid symbolisms at play here,
1. The symbolism you are talking about;
2. The symbolism that the man in the line is talking about.
Now I can describe your symbolism from the “man in the line” point of view. I can say that taking the oath of office from the CJ represents/symbolizes the top-down nature of our society and that recognizing the wellspring of one’s power and legitimacy is more meaningful than a ceremony between peers. Furthermore the “traditional” ritual symbolizes that “the man in the line” is a mere spectator, a non-participant in the power structure of the society.
Don’t forget the ‘masked man in the video’ moro-moro. That will be the next flavor of the week.
aliw talaga!
mukhang hindi naman siya computer expert…hahahaha. pero baka nga hacker siya…kung ganun, siguro pinaghahanap na siya ng CIA.
So what again is the meaning of Noynoy winning by the 40-plus percent plurality? Even if he won by 52%, what does it mean?
Gibo lost and Teodoro lost; Erap lost and Jamby lost.
Now, what does Noynoy winning mean? Noynoy has a mandate, therefore, whatever Noynoy wants — like Marcos wealth and GMA-in-jail — legitimate. And if Noynoy has to get rid of Corona and all associate judges so that Noynoy can stuff the Court so he can have a kangaroo-court masquerading as a Supreme Court… why not, Noynoy has mmandate giving the kangaroo court legitimacy.
Yehhhh-bahhh! Except I think this is the wrong reading of Noynoy winning the elections. Ignoring 1987 constitution with regards populating the Supreme Court is not one of Noynoy’s campaign promises. People want 5 or 7 smugglers or tax evaders in jail by November 2010, not a reconstituted Supreme Court by 2010.
that is my understanding, bert can tell me if I am wrong.
Plurality/elections – read Impossibility Theorem by Nobel prize winner Kenneth Arrow
sa wiki “when voters have three or more discrete options, no voting system can convert the ranked preferences of individuals into a community-wide ranking while also meeting a certain set of criteria.”
in other words, no electoral system can capture real preferences of the electorate
…or as Tim Harford says: it’s nonsense to even speak of society’s real preferences.
Basta may nanalo. Yun na yun.
Is there a postulate which says that the winner of the election will conform to the values of the population? In other words, it should be a tautology (but I doubt it is so) that the elected will conform to the wishes of the voters.
You’d hope that because the plurality has elected Noynoy, then Noynoy will put Option-X as higher than Option-Y whenever the voters put Option-X as higher alue than Option-Y. I doubt this is guaranteed to happen in a social system when there exists a dictator/cabal who has a stronger influence on the elected than the citizens who voted for the elected.
Who knows…humans are hard to quantify because we do unpredictable things
let us give NoyBi the benefit of the doubt, i dunno 1 year, 2 years??…besides, we gave that to Gloria rin after Erap…and she turned out to be a horrible evil corrupt piece of sh it.
“…so that Noynoy can stuff the Court so he can have a kangaroo-court masquerading as a Supreme Court…”-Mike H
“that is my understanding, bert can tell me if I am wrong.”-Mike H, again
Mike H,
How many times do I have to remind you not to forget that Noynoy is not PGMA? Why do you kept on forgetting? Na-caesarian section ka na ba?
Mike H
A Supreme Court that is truly independent is what we all desire.
Right! That reads the law and applies it. That does not read the political winds and apply them. That has honor and intelligence and dignity and understands that justice delayed is not justice at all.
corona just got sworn in in a very private ceremony.
so do we want a very public president sworn in by someone very recently sworn in in a very private ceremony?
the barangay captain is fine by me.
in fact, i’d prefer mang pandoy, charice pempengco or robin padilla over mr corona, just for controversy’s sake. let’s see how everyone will argue with filipino patriotism over that one.
Hiyang-hiya kasi sila sa ginawa nila, kaya itinago ang oathtaking sa public. Meron din pala.
Hala! If there were no witnesses, how can we be sure the swearing in of Corona was kosher??
If this were the USA, 1000 conspiracy theories na! Maybe the wording was wrong! Or the sequence was jumbled!
Corona may just be another Gen. Bangit, we all were hypnotized that he (Bangit) will cause the failure of elections or help GMA perpetuate herself in power..and we saw what “never happened”…
To me, there are bigger battles to pick (than this oath taking row)…jobs, education, corruption to name a few…
Jet P
There are indeed bigger battles to fight. Unfortunately, Malacanan keeps manufacturing crises so that the incoming president gets all tied up.
I guess Malacanan does not want the public to focus on why they elected Aquino in the first place, to throw Gloria, her family, and her cohorts in jail.
There has been news clips — the Noynoy initiative to hire lawyers and other personnel to form a SpecialTeam to bring the Garcification-case to the courts, along with solidify the evidence and the case — graft/corruption against GMA, Mike Arroyo and the GMA-cohorts to send them to jail. That has not stopped, I hope. And there is no reason for Noynoy to stop activity on his promise to bring to jail in his first month of office a number of smugglers and tax evaders on his LIST.
Noynoy can attend to the complexities of choosing a baranggay captain without affecting the efforts for the special Team and the names on the LIST.
If Noynoy says he will stop efforts to deliver his campaign promises as long as Corona is the Chief Justice, then Pilipinas in in deep dooo-dooo.
Bangit is Gloria’s insurance of the military’s loyalty in case a Ronaldo Puno-like operation was launched to rig the last election and people will, being sukang suka of her already, take matters into their hands and kick Gloria out unceremoniously.
Did you noticed how Malacanang and Angelo Reyes were quaking in their boots when there was that CF card glitch in the Comelec machine prior to e-day? Even James Jimenez issued a warning that there was a discovered plan to rig the elections.
Gloria was just as nervous of any perceived cheating because that could mean her being dragged by the hair out of the palace.
That explains the relatively clean elections, at least on the national level.
It is not a manufactured crissis. It is Political Bufoonery, as usual. The Aquinos know Filipino Politics. It is a show. This is the reason, Erap Estrada almost won the election. To put a superflous issue of oath taking, to the forefront is tantamount to imbecility. Who cares, whoever will administer his oath. It is how he will do his job, as President, that matters. And deliver his promises to us. Will he deliver good results? This is a one-peso question, at inflated rate. We don’t need apologists to explain to us things. We have minds of our own. We need a President who can lead. Not a showman, who entertains us!
Mario,
It is a manufactured crisis. Gloria created the issue and brought it to a head. She knew that right thinking people would not abide by what she did. It could not be ignored because what the SC did was a constitutional revision through the backdoor.
Gloria Arroyo will soon be History. If Noynoy Aquino and his administration is looking for ghosts in the past like: martial law, usurpation of power, Marcos, and whatsover. Are they trying to hide their own incompetence? Or some form of Hidden Political Agendas? Are some people behind him pulling some sort of strings? To make us shout: The Bogeyman is here! We want to live in the present, not the past! We want our country to go forward; not backward; or becoming still stagnant.
The bogeyman is in your brain Mario and it is clawing to get out. Noynoy has every right to decide which is an important issue before him. This is not a small issue, in fact it is a very crucial issue because this is tantamount to ignoring the spirit on how appointments are done according to the constitution this being a midnight appointment etc. You’ve read the legal precedents. Noynoy’s reaction should be fast and swift to this issue so that we can get on with other equally important things like nation building.
a one peso question, yes.
a one peso reply – let Aquino take his oath with whoever he damn pleases.
moving on, moving on.
As the French Political Philosopher stated: ” I disagree with what you say. However, I will defend it to death your Right to say it.” we may not agree what others put on their Blogs, but they have the Right to vent their opinions.
The most important issue here is: massive poverty and economic stagnation. Even, if you have a retinue of apologists. People will not agree with you, if their stomachs are grumbling with hunger, or have no jobs to feed their families. Many problems, mostly economic to attend to, other than the Corona appointment. He had no Economic Plans in his campaign. He does’nt have any plans to present to us on how we can solve our economic problems. It is because he won by his famous name, and the efforts of his mega-star sister: Kris Aquino. And also, of the Media allied to him. Does he have any Economic Plans, in hand? How to lead this country, in the next six years of his term? A General going to battle without any plans to win, is doomed to fail. Same way as a CEO who have no good plans for his company to follow. To lead his company is doomed to failure, also. Will he feel his way like a blind man to lead this country? Or will others do it for him? This remains to be seen!
Mario,
You seem bitter. I’d say loyalty to country is important, and respect for the millions who voted differently than you evidently did. Why not wait for the issues to firm up, and work on them, factually, rather than entering the fray with your mind made up, and fitting the facts into that box that imposes certain failure for Mr. Aquino without regard for what he actually does?
Joe
@Mike.
ouch! +2 years in school is “making it harder” eh? yeah, lets make it easier, knock off 2 years of school. that’ll help eh?
Mario: Noynoy does have his economic plan. The promise to Makati Business Club — “NO NEW TAXES”. How he’ll address the budget deficit? Two sources. Number two — Marcos wealth.
Number one — plug the leaks from corruption. His step-one : that he has a LIST OF SMUGGLERS/tax-evaders and in his first month in office, he promised to send to jail people on his LIST.
As for rice-self sufficiency — him and Mar (or maybe just Mar) vowed — Pinas will NOT import any low-cost rice in their 6 years in office (reason is so that Filipino farmers are assured of a buyer — Pinas government).
As for jobs-for-Pinoys in Pinas, Noynoy plan is
Hacienda Luisita — he’ll ask his clan, then he’ll execute on his plan to
Noynoy’s job-creation plan, I believe, follows the IMF/World Bank formula, namely that Noynoy administration will depend on private enterprise to create the Pinoy jobs in Pinas. Also stay with the formula that GMA has been following — the OFW-route : Malacanang negotiates with Japan, Lebanon, Hongkong and other countries to accept more Pinoy nurses, maritime, accountants, caretakers, etcetera.
Noynoy’s “Extra” is to make Pinoys more competitive. How? By making it harder — adding two more years of schooling — before a Pinoy can graduate from high school.