Triumph of mob rule

The Supreme Court is without doubt the most reviled Philippine institution next to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It has come under savage attack from the Aquino administration and its supporters for what they allege to be the rushing of the issuance of the temporary restraining order (TRO) allowing Arroyo to leave the country to seek medical treatment abroad.

The court issued the TRO in response to an urgent petition by Arroyo after the Department of Justice put her on the hold-departure watch list. Immigration officials blocked her from boarding her flight to Hong Kong on Tuesday last week, with the DOJ claiming that it needed her presence during the trial of a number of criminal cases, including election sabotage.

Last Friday, the filing of one of the charges— election sabotage—was rushed by the government to give the Pasay City regional trial court time to issue an arrest warrant against Arroyo, rendering the TRO moot and irrelevant.

The commotion at the Naia Tuesday evening, when there was jostling and pushing between immigration authorities and Arroyo’s party as she tried to board the plane, produced a rowdy spectacle of the rambunctious Philippine judicial, if not political, system at work. The spectacle was a reproduction of a “high noon” confrontation in the American Wild West between the sheriff and the lawless. The one who was quicker on the draw laid down the law.

What I am driving at is that in the airport showdown, none of the contending parties was scrupulous in following the legal niceties of the principle of due process. Arroyo made a dash to the airport to board her flight while the TRO was red hot. The government was no less frantic in cutting corners to produce the charge sheet (electoral sabotage) on the basis of which the judge issued the arrest warrant that nullified the immediate execution of the TRO.

It is a mistake to view the case between the Aquino regime and Arroyo as a morality play or as an epic struggle between absolute good and absolute evil, between black and white. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that of all Philippine presidents, Arroyo has been accused of the biggest number of offenses related to corruption and abuse of power during her nine-year rule. In addition to the case of election sabotage, at least six more cases, for plunder and graft and corruption, are on the assembly line for filing in the courts of justice. It cannot be ignored that Arroyo is the most reviled president we ever had since the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The appalling excesses of Arroyo have left a deep undercurrent of hatred that the Aquino administration is now tapping to fuel his campaign to make Arroyo accountable for her offenses. President Aquino is making sure he fulfills his loudly proclaimed pledge to send her to jail by Christmas.

The devotion of Mr. Aquino to the tedious requirements of due process has increasingly been questioned in the wake of the shortcuts his administration has made and the overzealous and heavy-handed measures it has taken to arrest Arroyo and detain her indefinitely on a charge that allows no bail.

Government assurances that Arroyo would be given a fair trial were deflated when Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released this week their reports on human rights observance in the Philippines. The reports said that political killings, abductions and tortures blamed on security forces continued since Mr. Aquino took office in June last year.

Despite evidence of military involvement in some of these cases, police investigations have stalled and they have failed to arrest suspects. London-based Amnesty International said Mr. Aquino has failed to establish accountability among his own officers. “Aquino has shown that human rights are still not a priority for his administration,” Amnesty International said.

This is not expected to inspire confidence in the President’s promise to give Arroyo a fair trial. Due process is the call of the hour.

It is not my purpose to make a martyr of Arroyo. The outrage against her is deep and powerful. It has translated into furious anger on the part of some people against those who have acted to give her due process in the face of the government’s rush to judgment.

The brunt of this hate frenzy has fallen on the Supreme Court after it issued the TRO. This frenzy comes from what appears to be developing into mob-rule justice. It is denouncing the court-packing by Arroyo and the 8-5 vote on the TRO. It is denouncing the perceived pro-Arroyo rulings of the Court under Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was a midnight appointee of Arroyo.

There are demands for the abolition of the Court and the dismissal of the justices. The Court’s credibility is badly damaged. It has been discredited and does not enjoy high public esteem. But how do we dismiss them without due process?

What will replace the Supreme Court so we can have a Court compliant to the “daang matuwid” crusade of a self-proclaimed honest administration?  Shall we replace it with a Committee on Public Safety which will respond to the swelling call for blood and retribution without evidence from the the mob in the streets? The lynch mob is lusting for the blood of even those asking for due process and a fair trial.

It is dangerous for Mr. Aquino to stoke the flames of this hysteria. It can easily turn in his direction.