‘Other justices should have been impeached, too!’

IT WAS ancient history but Jan Vincent Martinez’s letter (“Had INC ‘show of force’ worked for Corona’s retention in SC…” Opinion, 7/28/15) was a welcome reminder. What everyone merely suspected about the pretenses of the Iglesia ni Cristo was confirmed finally by no less than an insider whistle-blower!

Indeed, the spectacle of a chief justice, begging for his own share of the INC’s much-vaunted influence-peddling forays into the nation’s political affairs during his impeachment trial was pathetic. At the very least, if he had any shred of decency in him, he should not have clung to that most exalted office a minute longer. Slugging it out until the Senate impeachment tribunal showed him the door did not speak well of his self-esteem and character.

But what is more troubling is the fact that many of his colleagues in the Supreme Court who went all-out with him on that gambit are still there! It’s easy to identify them: Just check out who voted with their chief justice on the absurd proposition that the “temporary restraining order” (regarding former president Gloria Arroyo’s case), despite being “conditional,” was to be treated as “immediately executory” (that is, effective at once).

Arroyo would have skedaddled already to parts unknown and evaded prosecution had not Justice Secretary Leila de Lima stuck to her guns. In other words, if push came to shove, those justices would not hesitate to shed all forms of delicadeza, and cast their votes according to their whims or personal motivations—and the heck with justice and common sense!

Thus, for all the hoopla the INC drummed up on behalf of Corona and his gang of high magistrates (never mind that it fizzled out), is it unlikely that some “quid pro quo” would be demanded from them sooner or later either as payback or “payforward” (for who knows, they, too, might require the same “assistance” to secure sinecures after their retirement)? We shudder at the very thought of it. They should have been impeached, too—all of them, for betrayal of the public trust and conduct unbecoming!

—GRACE PO-QUICHO, [email protected]