Power crisis

With one motion, we are brought to the brink of bedlam. When the defense lawyers of Chief Justice Renato Corona filed a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court to halt the ongoing impeachment trial at the Senate, it also brought the Philippines the closest it has ever been to a constitutional crisis.

The petition came as something of a surprise considering that Corona had previously said that he had faith he would be acquitted in an impeachment trial, but he has apparently changed his mind. The petition filed by the defense is nothing short of provocative, as it asks the high court to impose its power over the Senate impeachment court, asking for a stop to the proceedings through a temporary restraining order.

Corona’s lawyers have pooh-poohed any talk of a looming crisis, saying that the filing isn’t anything extraordinary and that they are only protecting the rights of their client who, they say, is not getting a fair shake at the Senate. Saying the petition does not pit the Supreme Court against the Senate, defense lawyer Rico Paolo Quicho said: “What we are doing is actually a recognition of the Constitution and a respect [for] government instrumentalities. We are just seeking relief from the Supreme Court.” Colleague Tranquil Salvador III says we must all be sanguine about the petition. “How can there be a constitutional crisis when we don’t know yet how the Supreme Court would decide on the petition? We don’t even know if it would act on what we filed.”

The response to the Feb. 8 filing was immediate and unmuted. Sen. Teofisto Guingona III took to the Senate floor with a surprise speech warning about where the defense filing might take us. “Many of our fellow citizens are worried … that we will have a constitutional crisis,” Guingona said, citing the defense’s petition “to stop the issuance of a subpoena from the impeachment court related to bank deposits of the accused.” Prosecution spokesman Rep. Romero Quimbo explained that the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction over the Senate impeachment court. “The Senate leadership must carry out its exclusive constitutional mandate of impeachment to its finality. It should not allow its power to be emasculated by another branch,” he said.

Some of the fears were further ignited when the Supreme Court granted a TRO the next day preventing the prosecution from opening Corona’s dollar accounts. The air of unease was further increased when the Supreme Court decided to defer acting on the defense’s petition for certiorari. Now everyone waits with bated breath.

Perhaps the most surprising thing was that the Senate impeachment court seemed to be doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing. The senator-judges were looking at the evidence, listening to the arguments and weighing their own thoughts regarding the case against the Chief Justice. The accusations flew hard and fast. The defense said this was a trial by publicity, that some of the decisions made had no basis in law. The prosecution asked why all the resistance if Corona had nothing to hide. But nobody expected this.

The problem now is that there is no going back. What the defense wants is almost unthinkable. Should the Supreme Court grant a TRO against the very impeachment trial, it would effectively state that it is more powerful than the Senate. This is a strange development considering that the Supreme Court justices were merely appointed to their positions while the senators were each elected by popular vote. The senators certainly weren’t going to take it lying down. “We have the right to question it. We can’t just lie down and [sing] Alleluia,” Sen. Franklin Drilon said regarding the TRO on the Corona bank accounts. “We can’t be interfered with by the Supreme Court. Otherwise, we lose our independence.”

When the impeachment trial began, it was touted as proof that the legislative branch was equally powerful as the judicial branch; the impeachment court was also considered sui generis – one of a kind – and that it was proof that the Philippine government’s system of checks and balances actually worked.

Now that system is being tested like it has never been tested previously. Whatever happens next, these will be days of uncertainty and doubt. Will the Supreme Court impose its power on the Senate? Will the Senate impeachment court retain its independence and finish the Corona trial? Will our democracy emerge intact or irreparably damaged? It is now in the hands of the high court. Meanwhile, the Senate is caught in a dilemma while a nation awaits the next big twist in its surprising history.