Judicial precedents thrown out by SC

JUSTICE CONCHITA Carpio-Morales said it’s the biggest joke of the century. Former Executive Secretary-now-Sen. Joker Arroyo thinks it’s an insult to President Cory Aquino. The Inquirer’s April 14 editorial “Tree of injustice” said it all. It was a sad day when the Supreme Court ruled that the 20 percent block of San Miguel shares belongs to one lucky individual—not to the marginalized farmers and their families in our 20,000 coconut-producing barangays.

Assuming the major admissions on court record were not sufficient, perhaps the Court should have considered and given due weight to the history and the circumstances prevailing at the time the levy was imposed: its intended purpose, the dictatorship then obtaining, the cronies who were given control and disposition of the levy funds, the liberties taken thereon and, yes, the reason President Cory Aquino had to create the Presidential Commission on Good Governance (PCGG). All of which are undeniably now part of our tragic past and history.

The presidential decrees imposing the levy repeatedly declare that it is the policy of the State to promote the coconut industry’s growth and development so that the farmers could become direct participants in and beneficiaries of such growth and development. The levy without doubt was imposed “for the benefit of the coconut farmers.” The decrees say so at least 82 times. I counted that myself.

Pursuant to the above mandates, the UCPB and the CIIF—sources of the funds used to purchase the 20 percent San Miguel shares—were organized. UCPB in particular was created to provide solution to the perennial credit problems of the coconut farmers. Certainly, not to make it easier for some bank president or director to obtain loans in so enormous amounts as to enable him to buy 20 percent of one of the country’s biggest conglomerates. Obviously, in this case the judicial precedents on “fiduciary responsibility” were thrown out of the window.

It is interesting to recall that shortly before he retired, Chief Justice Reynato Puno candidly confirmed that “Justice in this country is tilted against the poor.” One of the reasons he cited was that many judges and justices rule on cases without taking into account the “social context.” We all know the problems we are facing now. We need not enumerate the current difficulties besetting us.

The eminent jurist Louis Brandeis said that justice involves a weighing of public needs against private desires, and likewise a weighing of relative social values. I hope this will provide added guidance for all of us especially during these unstable times.

The levy cases affect the lives of one-fourth of our countrymen. Justice has eluded them for 30 years. It is time President Aquino took a stand. This could be his defining moment. We pray he does not miss the boat.

—OSCAR F. SANTOS,

Coconut Industry

Reform Movement (COIR),

63 Masikap St.,

Teachers’ Village, Quezon City