The recent decisions and pronouncements of the Supreme Court place it on the side of democracy. But it can, at best, be reactive. With the continuous assault of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration on the people’s rights, sovereign will, and hard- fought-for liberties, it is the Filipino people themselves who can make democracy possible. After all, they are at the center of democracy.

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 20, June 24-30, 2007

Chief Justice Reynato Puno’s announcement that the Supreme Court (SC) would call for a multisectoral summit to gather inputs on how the judiciary could better protect civil liberties and address the problem of extrajudicial killings by promulgating new rules and procedures for the protection of witnesses, strengthening remedies which can be availed of by the victims and their families, reviewing rules of evidence and concepts such as command responsibility is a most welcome development. Although this may place it in a collision course with the executive department and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and it may cause a conflict with Congress on the issue of legislative powers, but, once again, it placed itself on the side of democracy.

Chief Justice Puno’s announcement came at the heels of its decision dismissing the rebellion case against six Left-leaning party-list representatives and four individuals from Bayan Muna (People First), Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) and Gabriela Women’s Party. In dismissing the rebellion case, the Supreme Court castigated the Department of Justice for hastily filing the case on the basis of scant evidence and for using the court for political ends.

The Supreme Court has been going against the Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s continued assaults on civil liberties. It struck down the government-sponsored “people’s initiative” to amend the 1987 Constitution thereby paving the way for the May 2007 elections; it declared as unconstitutional, the arbitrary arrests and raids done by the Macapagal-Arroyo administration in the name of a “state of national emergency” which it declared through Presidential Proclamation 1017; it likewise struck down the banning of rallies under the Calibrated Pre-emptive Response; and the blanket gag order prohibiting government officials from testifying in Congressional hearings provided for by Executive Order 464.

Actually, the Supreme Court under Puno seems to be tightening its defense of civil liberties. Chief Justice Puno even said that it wants to fine-tune the “gray areas” of the decision regarding Executive 464, which is now being invoked by AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon in response to Senator Antonio Trillanes’s plan of conducting a hearing on the participation of AFP officials in the spate of extrajudicial killings and the “Hello Garci” tapes. While the SC, which was then under former chief justice Artemio Panganiban, upheld the people’s right to know and take part in government affairs, it recognized the President’s prerogative to forbid her officials from participating in the question hour of Congress and in requesting for a closed-door session if “the security of the state or public interest so requires.”

Without the Supreme Court, the Macapagal-Arroyo could have consolidated its fascist rule on the Filipino people. If not for the Supreme Court, the Filipino people would again have to endure and struggle against martial rule.

But in spite of the plans of Chief Justice Puno to make the High Court more aggressive in its defense of civil liberties, it can, at best, be reactive. It can promulgate new or strengthen old rules and procedures. It can try to make the courts more responsive and accessible to the families of victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. It can clarify gray areas in laws and jurisprudence. But it cannot stop the AFP from committing the abhorrent crimes of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. It cannot prevent the Macapagal-Arroyo administration from trying to assault our civil liberties. And it has to wait for cases to be flied before it. It is on the sides of democracy.

Only the Macapagal-Arroyo administration can put a stop to extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances by reorienting its counter-insurgency program. Only the government can make sure that civil liberties are protected and promoted by changing its policy of self-preservation and, in its stead, submit to the people’s will. While at it, it can even make the justice department genuinely dispense justice by dispensing with its justice secretary.

If it does not and if it continues with its assault on the most basic of the people’s rights, its sovereign will, and its hard-fought-for liberties then the Filipino people can only rely on themselves: on the strength of their collective action. It is the Filipino people who fought against Spanish colonization and for our democratic rights. It is the Filipino people who fought against the American colonizers in one of the most brutal wars of aggression in history. It is the Filipino people who toppled a dictatorship which deprived us of all our rights and civil liberties. The Macapagal-Arroyo administration may continue belittling the mobilizations protesting against it. But it cannot continue running roughshod on the people’s rights and killing unarmed civilians with impunity and still think that the resulting protest actions would not be enough to make it accountable. After all, the people are the center of democracy and they make democracy possible. (Bulatlat.com)

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