rockymickeyquick – Hindi lang naman si C. Monsod ang nadismaya, majority of Filipinos are.

Article VII, Section 15 of 1987 Philippine Constitution, states that: “Two months immediately before the next presidential elections and up to the end of his term, a President or Acting President shall not make appointments, except temporary appointments to executive positions when continued vacancies therein will prejudice public service or endanger public safety”.

It is crystal-clear that the above-mentioned Article does not mention “Except for Judiciary”, so in essence and for all intents and purposes, this provision covers all positions that are executive in nature, including the Judiciary, except temporary appointments to executive positions when continued vacancies therein will prejudice public service or endanger public safety

Here is an Article posted from the Filipino Voices.

This is how things stood on last Wednesday’s Supreme Court Ruling that outgoing President Arroyo can appoint a Chief Justice In-Waiting.

1. Section 15 Article VII of the 1987 Constitution still prohibits the incumbent president from making appointments two months before an election and until his or term expires.
2. This year, the election ban started on March 10 and will last until the end of President Arroyo’s term on June 30.
3. Put in simpler words, under the 1987 Constitution, an outgoing president is barred from making appointments two months before an election and until the end of his or her term.
4. In the case of Mrs. Arroyo, she cannot issue midnight appointments from March 10 to June 30.

Ponder, too, these antecedents:

During the time of President Fidel V. Ramos the justices disallowed FVR from making appointments during an election period.

Former Constitutional Commission member and Ateneo de Manila Law Scool dean emeritus Father Joaquin Bernas had said that even without a formal petition filed before it, the Supreme Court (SC) on its own could put an end to the raging controversy surrounding President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s possible naming of a chief justice during the period covered by the election appointment ban.

Bernas told a forum organized by the watchdog group Supreme Court Appointments Watch (SCAW) that the SC, motu propio or on its own accord, could rule on the constitutionality of Arroyo’s selection of a replacement for Chief Justice (CJ) Reynato Puno.

CJ, the only remaining non-Arroyo appointee in the Court, prudently chose not to participate in the deliberations today as he is also chair of the Judicial and Bar Council.

If Arroyo forces the issue and appoints the next chief justice, he said the SC could strike it down without waiting for a party to lodge a petition.

Father Bernas cited the case involving the disputed appointments of judges Mateo Valenzuela and Placido Vallarta to the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in May 1998.

He stressed how the SC en banc went ahead on its own and invalidated the judges’ appointments since these were well within the period covered by the election appointment ban.

In the event the JBC does not submit a list and President Arroyo appoints a chief justice during the period of the appointment ban, Bernas said this would trigger a constitutional crisis as this would be a blatant violation of the Constitution.

The High Court said:

The appointment of the next Chief Justice by the incumbent President is preferable to having the Associate Justice who is first in precedence take over. Under the Constitution, the heads of the Legislative and Executive Departments are popularly elected, and whoever are elected and proclaimed at once become the leaders of their respective Departments. However, the lack of any appointed occupant of the office of Chief Justice harms the independence of the Judiciary, because the Chief Justice is the head of the entire Judiciary. The Chief Justice performs functions absolutely significant to the life of the nation. With the entire Supreme Court being the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, the Chief Justice is the Chairman of the Tribunal. There being no obstacle to the appointment of the next Chief Justice, aside from its being mandatory for the incumbent President to make within the 90-day period from May 17, 2010, there is no justification to insist that the successor of Chief Justice Puno be appointed by the next President.

Anticipating the decision, Father Joaquin Bernas opined that the worst-case scenario is widespread protest in response to Arroyo’s midnight appointment. He even hinted that he himself would join the protest.

The constitutionalist went on to warn that a justice who accepts an appointment under these circumstances would be an “accessory to the crime” since the appointment would constitute a “culpable violation of the Constitution,” and this means the new chief justice may be impeached.

But Bernas said it is possible to implement the two contradictory provisions in the Constitution on the election appointment ban and the need to fill the vacancy in the Supreme Court within 90 days from time CJ Puno retires on May 17.

The solution is to prevent President Arroyo from naming the next chief justice and to just let the next president make the appointment.
He noted that the next chief executive would still have 45 days left or until August 15 to choose the next chief justice from the time he or she assumes office on June 30, 2010.

Seems quite reasonable and easy to do, right?

But not if you consider how the emerging mindset of Arroyo is, as mirrored from her lapdogs:

1. She will do what is expedient.
2. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will name a CJ In-Waiting even though the results of the elections are expected a couple of days after May 10,
3. She will ignore that fact that the Philippines would already have a President-elect!!!

The ignoble premise?

That she cannot ‘neglect’ her sworn duty not to leave a vacancy in the Supreme Court unfilled. Hogwash many would say. But for someone facing the likelihood of criminal charges after June 30, GMA will play her trump card and make sure that the highest court of the land is populated by her appointees.

So there you are.