PWJA ladies broke sub judice rule

We are disturbed by the blatant show of “solid support,” expressed by the Philippine Women Judges Association (PWJA) during its convention last March 15, for impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona. This was a gathering of trial judges and appellate justices to whom the people have entrusted the power to preside over their lives and fortunes supposedly with the highest degree of circumspection, wisdom and sobriety.  PWJA president, Supreme Court Justice Teresita De Castro, was observed aping Corona’s demagoguery: “An injustice to one of us is an injustice to everyone!” (read: The impeachment of Corona is an attack against the entire judiciary!).

Simple, old-fashioned delicadeza should have kept such fawning display of misplaced fealty in check and caused the “honorable” magistrates to distance themselves from the controversy which has morphed into a rabble-rousing political squabble between Corona and the president of the Republic.  The trial in the impeachment court is ongoing and it behooves them, of all people, to respect the rule on “sub judice.”

It is by the power of the people entrusted to Congress that Corona is now on the dock. By mindlessly linking arms with the beleaguered Chief Justice, the members of the PWJA themselves may have betrayed the trust the public have reposed in them and their oath to maintain the “cold neutrality” demanded by their sacrosanct office in the face of any controversy. That does not speak very well of the quality of judges and justices now manning the ramparts of the Philippine judicial system. Ordinary citizens are allowed to rant about their individual predilections and prejudices; judges and justices, most definitely, are not.

To the “honorable” women judges and justices who virtually worship the ground Corona walks on and have thereby prejudged the impeachment court, the people wish for you to re-read the code of judicial conduct and ethics—something your chief may also have totally forgotten about.

—STEVE Y. VESPERA, ESQ.,

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