OUR "KAWAWANG" JUDICIARY

In the so-called "balance of power" or principle of check and balance among the executive, legislative and judicial branch of our government, nakalulungkot isipin na dehadong dehado talaga ang Judicial Branch.

 Una, di ba sa nakaraang impeachment trial ni former Chief Justice Renato Corona ay maliwanag na pinagtulungan at pinagkaisahan ng Executive at Legislative branches ang Judicial branch? Ikalwa, "the Members of the Supreme Court and judges of the 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.  Such appointments need no confirmation". (Sect 9, Article VIII of th Constitution.)  Ikatlo, In the membership of the Judicial and Bar Council (Section 8, same article) while there appears (originally) to be equal participation among the ex-officio members (Chief Justice as Chairman), Secretary of Justice (representing the Executive and a representative of Congress (representing the Legislative), the four regular members are all appointees of the President na kanino pa nga ba magiging beholden kundi sa Executve So lumamang na naman dito ang Executive.    I used the word "originally" above, because it is no longer the case.  Kung sa bagay ay sa kawalan na rin ng sariling backbone ng Judiciary, the Supreme Court has recently allowed two (2) separate representatives from the Legislature: one from the Senate and another from the Hous,. di bale sana kung these two have one-half votes each, but they have one each.

Then finally, and certainly not any less lamentably, the Legislative Department can elect its own Chief or Head, with the Senators electing the  Senate President and the Congressmen electing the House Speaker.  That,  compared with the Chief Justice appointed by the President, even as when the CJ is vacated, the Associate Justices may elect his temporary replacement in the person of an Acting CJ which by tradition, has always been the most senior amongst them. Buti naman at sa kabila ng one-consuming obsession of the President to control the Judiciary ay hindi siya nagrereklamo for the Justices to elect the temporary CJ!

Of course, all of the above "Kadehaduhan" ng Judiciary vis-a-vis the Executive and Legislative branches can be traceable to the present charter, and partly to unquestioned tradition.   Over the years, we have seen several virtual shortcomings of the 1987 Constitution which have in turn caused a lot of divisiveness among our people  and prevented an otherwise smooth flow of governance in these parts -- divisiveness and governmental problems that, relatively, have never been brought to us by the erstwhile 1935 Constitution, even if that was in fact written way back before we finally became a truly independent republic.  Indeed, that said, it's high time our 1987 charter is amended.