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The Fallen Justice System

The Fallen Justice System

This day marks a historic event in the Philippine history where the justices of Supreme Court decapitated the main head of the Supreme Court itself and the Filipino people witnessed how the justice system of the Philippines fell.

One of the recent social issues that our country faces right now is the attempt of some people to oust the current Chief Justice of the Phillipines Maria Lourdes Sereno. Atty. Larry Gadon first filed an impeachment case against her but later on, Solicitor General Jose Calida filed a quo warranto case for the Chief Justice because of her 'lack of credibility' but according to our 1987 Philippine Constitution particulary in Section 2, Article XI, she can only be removed by an impeachment process. No method is just except for it and other than that, it will be unconstitutional. But on this day, May 11, 2018, the Supreme Court itself voted to nullify Sereno's chief justice post using the quo warranto case.

What does this mean to the Philippines, especially to our current constitution? Only the upper house (Or the senate) can judge whether they would remove an officer by means of impeachment only. No law stated that the justices of Supreme Court can remove their own Chief Justice. The move is very unconstitutional. This is, by far the biggest blow towards the Filipino people. They are members of the judiciary branch and their job is to interpret the laws and the constitution properly and it is ironic they are the ones who spit and step on it. Today marks a constitutional crisis and it could bring a danger on the judicial legitimacy of our country.

Now that Maria Lourdes Sereno is removed, our democracy, liberty, and freedom are once again threatened by the people in the government. The President of the Philippines hold the executive branch and most of the lawmakers in the upper and lower houses of the legislative branch made their way to join PDP-Laban. When a chief justice is ousted into the position, only the president can appoint another one. Now, our president holds the three branches of the government. Now the question is: What would happen to the checks and balances which is so important in a democratic country? It maintains the balance amongst the three branches so what would happen if these people have the same ideology? What would happen to the political freedom of other people? If one ideology prevails, that isn't democracy anymore.

Supreme Court's role is vital especially now that there is a continuous recount of votes in the vice-presidency post which endangers the currently seated Vice-president of the Philippines Leni Robredo. It is obvious that the current government would do their best to eradicate all ideologies that does not get along with theirs. Another thing is that the current Ombudsman of the Philippines would likely retire this July so the president would then again appoint another one and this is getting dangerous as ever. This is a domino effect that would continuously happen but there is another way to prevent these events from happening—if the Filipino people set aside their political color and look at things rationally.

Since the very beginning, we see how things turned out when Duterte assumed the presidency. He had these broken promises, we watched how the Chinese builds infrastructures in the disputed islands and we cannot do anything about it even though the arbitration ruling favors us. The inflation rate is high as ever and they do not hear the voices of the marginalized. Everything is messed up.

So open your eyes, look around your surroundings, and ask yourself: Is this still right? We do not want to wake up one day when we, once again, witness the death of democracy. People during the 70's and 80's fought for our freedom. It's time to make action especially when we can almost see the prologue of a rising dictator.