TACTLESS!

Columnist Rigoberto Tiglao said quite a mouthful against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno with respect to her Administrative Order No.175-2010 establishing a Regional Court Administration Office (RCAO) in Cebu City, as well as against Liberal Party stalwart Francis Pangilinan for immediately coming to Sereno's defense.

I am sure not a few dogged supporters of the present administration who have read the said Tiglao column (PDI, 12/13/2012) will forthwith once again lose no time lambasting Tiglao for being extremely anti-PNoy -- although of course PNoy has absolutely nothing to do with this debacle.    To be honest, I also at times tend to take Tiglao's words with a grain of salt. This time around, nevertheless,  I think there is nothing condemnable in what he said on this particular issue.

First, it was absolutely undeniable  that there had been a previous en banc Supreme Court resolution  sometime during former CJ Renato Corona's time, opposing -- or perhaps at least putting on hold for further deliberation -- the establishment of RCAO-7 in Cebu.   Even the dumbest law student certainly knows an "en banc" resolution by a collegial body can only be revered by an equally "en banc" resolution.  Now, let's get real: and be honest at least to ourselves if not to others!  Indeed, Tiglao, or anybody else for that matter, could be validly blamed for thinking that, as the highest Justice of the land, Sereno does not even know what an en back resolution means. Or, does she think that, as protegee of the most powerful official of the land, she can break that time-honored rule?

Neither, in the second place, may Tiglao be regarded as unduly demeaning Pangilinan for forthwith rushing to the media in Sereno's defense.   So doing, Pangilinan had only summoned every right-thinking reader into forming three unwholesome impression of him as an otherwise lawmaker.  One, like Sereno, he likewise do not know what an en banc resolution is.  Two, given the relative bad light that Corona may have left in the eyes of the public, Pangilinan had so foolishly thought he could muster enough public-opinion support or justification for Sereno's shocking blunder.   And three, as a Senator and avid supporter of the President -- though, as refuse to believe how his position in this fiasco would delight PNoy -- he unnecessarily broke in the process the time-honored balance of power between the three equal branches of government.

As things stand, that which Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Sen. Francis Pangilinan did had clearly mirrored an utter lack of a keen sense of what to do or say in order to maintain good relations or avoid offense. The dictionary has an exact word for it:  TACTLESS.  That is, truth to tell so disgraceful an adjective that nobody -- very much less a high official in government or in a private organization -- would ever wish to be attached to him.  The good news is Pangilinan stays in the Senate only until June next year; the bad news is Sereno will be this country's Chief Justice for the next eighteen years.