Top-to-bottom revamp of judicial branch necessary

Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal is correct in saying that the Supreme Court is not likely to stop the Senate from acting as an impeachment court to try and decide the Corona impeachment case. He pointed out that “as a matter of fact, the high court may eventually dismiss these petitions for lack of jurisdiction and/or lack of legal standing of the lawyers in filing the cases.”

Macalintal emphasized that “the grounds relied upon by the House in impeaching Corona are political questions which the Supreme Court cannot review or overturn.”

And since the high court, as the election lawyer said, “does not usually touch on the issue of the constitutionality of an act of Congress if there are some other grounds upon which the court may rest its judgment,” then the Senate may proceed with the impeachment trial without any hitches.

Corona’s impeachment trial is a milestone in our contemporary political history. This is the first time a chief justice will be tried for culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of the public trust and graft and corruption. By all means, let the trial move forward so that the people themselves will be sufficiently educated on what standards a chief justice should observe and uphold.

I personally believe that the allegations against Corona have solid basis and hardly plucked out of thin air, as he claims. And if the senator-judges decide on conviction, this will be for the good of the country as the Judiciary really needs a top-to-bottom revamp.

—ULYSSES ULPIANO,

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