Linggo, Abril 1, 2012

CHICKEN-AND-EGG SITUATION

My rather long respite from watching daily the televised impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato C. Corona has afforded me ample opportunity to digress from merely digesting the proceedings per se into thinking of matters I barely considered before.  To be more specific, I now tend to ask myself:  Granting that Corona is convicted and removed -- or opts to resign albeit found innocent (having thereby duly vindicated himself) -- may President Aquino smoothly proceed to appoint a new Chief Justice?  I strongly doubt so.

It should be worthwhile revisiting the related provisions of the Constitution at this juncture.  Sections 8 and 9 of Article VIII provide, among others, that: "(a) A Judicial Bar and Council is hereby created under the supervision of the Supreme Court composed of the Chief Justice as ex officio Chairman, the Secretary of Justice and a representative of the Congress as ex officio Members, a representative of the Integrated Bar, a professor of law, a retired member of the Supreme Court, and a representative of the private sector. (b) The Council shall have the principal function of recommending appointees to the Judiciary.  (c) The members of the Supreme Court and judges of lower courts shall be appointed by the President from a list of at least three nominees prepared by the Judicial and Bar Council for every vacancy."

That is fine and well said!  But then, a big question curiously emerges.  I mean, without Corona, may the JBC -- ergo, sans a Chairman! -- still continue to exist constitutionally, so as to convene itself for the purpose of preparing the required official list of three nominees from which, in turn, Aquino may choose Corona's successor?

I have spent quite sometime scanning the charter, yet I failed to find a clue pointing to another government official -- for example, the most senior among the Justices -- who may at least briefly and temporarily sit in an acting capacity as Chief Justice. Looking back, methinks the contentious situation in May 2010, where former President Arroyo forthwith appointed Corona after former Chief Justice Reynato Puno had retired, was even slightly better or relatively more manageable than that which awaits the present administration if Corona were suddenly removed or voluntarily stepped down.  At the very least, assuming Arroyo had then allowed Aquino to appoint Puno's replacement, the mandatory list of nominees from which Aquino might have named his choice -- although also still controversially -- had all along been readily available when Puno stepped down.  As things now are, vis-a-vis the constitutional requirement that there be a separate list for every vacancy, there will definitely be no such thing for Aquino to consider in selecting Corona's replacement, if necessary.

In a nutshell, the Constitution is in effect practically saying -- subject, of course, to the dissenting views of some -- that without a Chief Justice to chair and convene it, no Judicial and Bar Council can legally function as such, and without a JBC to prepare the mandatory list of nominees, there can never be a new Chief Justice.  A virtual chicken-and-egg situation, isn't it?

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