(Editor’s note: A sworn statement or any document validated by an oath is testimony of one’s true intent, as noted by the author.)

MANILA, Philippines — There's so much fear expressed by various quarters that going against a high court judge can lead to two serious results: 1) destroying judicial independence, and 2) promoting a constitutional crisis.

Policing the ranks

In a number of cases, the Supreme Court has policed its ranks by dismissing justices of the Court of Appeals, RTC, and other inferior court judges – as misfits – with the forfeiture of service benefits and prohibition against their holding future similar positions.

True test

There’s one simple test, heavier than other credentials, if a member of the judicial branch deserves to continue dispensing justice to others. And that test is: Is the judge or justice morally fit to keep his high office of protecting justice.

Since the reorganization of the Supreme Court on June 11, 1901, not one of the American and Filipino justices was ever questioned for his moral uprightness or lack of it.

Board and lodging

In the late 1940s, there was an attempt to file impeachment proceedings against Justice Gregorio Perfecto on one ground:   Being physically handicapped, he preferred to live in his Supreme Court office/quarters. His mental/moral fitness was not put to a test.

The attempt to impeach Perfecto for sleeping and eating in his office without paying board/lodging costs did not prosper.   The House members had second thoughts if this conduct could fall under “other high crimes.”

Justices in the old days

The all-Filipino Supreme Court started to function under Chief Justice Ramon Avanceña of Iloilo upon the inauguration of the Commonwealth Government on November 15, 1935. He was succeeded by Jose Abad Santos, one of the first scholars who studied in the US in 1904 under a program to help promising Filipino high school students initiated by Governor-General William Howard Taft.

Most justices and their chiefs who were appointed after Independence ’46 rose through the ranks such as Manuel V. Moran, Alejo Labrador, Alex Reyes, JBL Reyes, Ricardo C. Paras, Arsenio Dizon, Querube Macalintal, Cesar Bengzon, etc.

No seniority

In the US, seniority on the bench is seldom followed, as shown by the appointment of Earl Warren (former governor of California), Fred M. Vinson (crony of President Truman), John Marshall (secretary of state of John Adams), John Jay (fellow delegate of Washington at the Philadelphia Convention – Jay resigned and became governor of New York), and William Howard Taft, former secretary of war and president, 1909-1913.

Sa matuwid na daan

If Supreme Court justices are not subject to sanctions like impeachment, who will then chastise or scold them to make them toe the matuwid na daan?

If judicial independence is not subject to question from any high office, legislative or executive, what would be the proper remedy to keep them fit, morally/mentally?

The highest office

The presidency is the highest office within the “gift” of the people, but the Constitution makes him accountable for his conduct in office. His immunity is not complete as shown in the impeachment trial of Erap and his subsequent conviction of plunder by a court.

The people themselves through Congress are asked to judge/punish high officials – justices included – for committing impeachable acts defined in the Constitution.

Not discrepancies but ...

Let’s not call discrepancies in the SALN a small matter to sneeze at or something subject to correction like a typographical error. It represents an official’s true worth in many ways, not his net worth alone as an accounting term.

Under oath

Documents like deed of sale, affidavits, and other ordinary contracts speak for the parties and no other. If deception or falsehood is stated in an affidavit or statement under oath, we don’t ask the judge first if this is wrong amounting to a crime or misdemeanor.

A man’s true intent can be found in the document he signs freely and without reservation. Period! (Comments are welcome at roming@pefianco.com).