High court undermining itself

I WRITE on behalf of the Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO). From its founding, the FSGO has been critical of the Arroyo regime. In deference to President Aquino’s admonition to “treat her with respect,” we will not comment for now on her antics at the Naia Terminal 1 on the evening of Nov. 15.

We are thankful that the executive branch has acted according to its sworn duty as one of the three co-equal branches of government.

We regret the evident partisanship in the Supreme Court’s Nov. 15 en banc decision on the TRO. The eight votes in favor were all appointees in Arroyo’s second term. Of the five in contra, only Justice Jose Mendoza was appointed in that Arroyo term.

Public servants must be reminded that no one is divinely appointed. The same holds true with the Court and its members. Furthermore, the Supreme Court, as with other lower courts, is expected to be a servant, not the master, of the people and certainly not beholden to the appointing power.

The present Supreme Court as a body has been obviously partisan for Arroyo. The Court has to gain its moral ascendancy and earn real authority for itself. We respectfully remind the justices that the exercise of their granted authority will be vitiated if and when they lose the real respect of their constituency. For any Supreme Court, that constituency is no less than the citizenry of our republic.

We call on the justices not to further undermine the credibility of the Supreme Court as an institution.

—VICENTE T. PATERNO,

member, Former Senior Government

Officials (FSGO), www.fsgo.ph