For the past two weeks, I have been discussing the controversy over judicial appointments in the Philippines. I, along with the Arroyo administration and the rest of the country, believed the Supreme Court’s decision in De Castro v. JBC created an exception to the 1987 Constitution‘s prohibition on “midnight appointments” for all judicial appointments. However, yesterday, according to the Philippine Inquirer, the Supreme Court clarified that its ruling was restricted to Supreme Court appointments and did not necessarily allow the president to appoint lower court judges. This certainly isn’t obvious from reading the case itself (which generally refers to the “Judiciary”). In fact, much of the court’s reasoning seemed based upon distinguishing the Judiciary from the Executive. I wonder if the Supreme Court is backtracking due to the public backlash. It would make sense strategically to widen the scope of the Supreme Court’s powers and ability to get a Chief Justice, while limiting the presidency’s powers – especially when Aquino’s lead in the latest SWS polls has widened.
Category Archives: Philippines
Appointments according to Justice
Justice Secretary Alberto Agra recently gave his view on the scope of the Philippine Constitution’s § 15 appointments clause:
First exception is the appointment of members of the Judiciary, which is an offshoot of the Supreme Court ruling stating that Arroyo can appoint the next Chief Justice as well as the 15th Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
“In fact, we are looking at applications to various positions in the Judiciary,” Agra, an ex-officio member of the Judicial and Bar Council said.
Second, the ban does not cover post-appointment activities such as transmittal of the appointment papers, turnover ceremony, oath-taking, acceptance and assumption into office.
Third exception covers designation, detail, transfer and reappointment which, according to Agra, “presupposes an earlier previous appointment.”
Fourth, Agra said Arroyo is allowed to appoint contractual, casual, and project employees, and co-terminus employees.
“They do not perform sovereign function. The ban covers public officers, not public employees,” he said.
Fifth, he said that officers of the various government corporate offices can elect their officials.
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Yet more appointments
Yet more new judicial appointments, from PhilStar:
As debates rage over Mrs. Arroyo’s recent appointments, two professors of the Angeles UniversityFoundation School of Law have been named new justices of the Court of Appeals.
University officials bared the new appointments last Friday but did not say when Mrs. Arroyo signed them.
Named new CA justices were Eduardo Peralta Jr. and Ramon Hernando.
“Prior to their appointments, Justice Peralta was executive judge at the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 while Justice Hernando was presiding judge at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 93,” the university said in a statement.
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Filed under Arroyo, Philippines
Excerpt from "Shadow of Doubt"
I’m still waiting for my copy of Shadow of Doubt to arrive in the mail. In the meantime, Asia Sentinel has posted an excerpt. Here are some highlights:
It’s the 16th anniversary of the Jesus Is Our Shield ministry, a born-again Christian group, and Renato Carillo, who calls himself an apostle, “the man of God in the Philippine islands,” delivers almost an hour-long sermon. He’s a showman; he breaks into sobs while talking, his tearless face pained….
This show would have been like any other born-again group’s event except for one noticeable difference—and he sat among the audience. Chief Justice Reynato Puno was the ministry’s special guest that night, the speaker who was to close more than four hours of prayer and celebration.
That’s why Carillo emphasized how that day in March 2009 could “change the course of our country.” At the time, the Supreme Court Chief Justice was being asked to run for president by some groups, mainly those similar to Carillo’s ministry. Puno attracted these religious groups because he was a Methodist preacher and he was then convening a “moral force” movement to which they gravitated.
Carillo proudly talked of their special guest. “He (Puno) told me that he gets invited to many cocktail parties where there are lots of food but he’d rather be with the poor…. He ought to be a bishop.” The two had met at a breakfast meeting of select members of the ministry in October 2008, where Puno was invited by retired police General Reynaldo Osia….
The KME saw a kindred spirit in Puno, classifying him as an “economic nationalist.” It was for this reason that they asked to meet with him. The Chief Justice agreed— and he could only have known, at the back of his mind, that the group was urging him to lead an interim government, a junta of sorts, and violate his oath to defend the Constitution.
Also, there are reports that President Arroyo is making dozens of “midnight appointments” in the Executive branch. What isn’t clear from the article is whether these occurred before or after March 11, the start of the two-month ban on appointments under Chapter VII, Article 15 of the Constitution.
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Filed under Philippines, Shadow of Doubt, Supreme Court
Courting Constitutional Chaos
I recently wrote an article for Tom Ginsburg’s Comparative Constitutions Blog about the constitutional crisis in the Philippines. You can find it here. By the way, if you don’t follow the Comparative Constitutions Blog, you really ought to. Daily analysis of constitutional developments around the world from leading experts – it doesn’t get much better than that. Also (mercifully) most of the posts are short.
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Filed under Philippines, Supreme Court
Dominic J. Nardi, Jr. 
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