That flip-flopping habit

Perhaps flip-flopping is a habit so deeply ingrained in Chief Justice Renato Corona that the habit has spilled over to his other GMA-era colleagues in the Supreme Court. Or, to put it another way, perhaps flip-flopping in the high court has become so habitual that it has become a personal habit as well with the Chief Justice.

Flip-flopping by the Supreme Court we leave to more competent commentators, as the latest decision on the Fasap case demonstrates. (Ano ba talaga? After three “final and executory” verdicts favoring the flight attendants, hindi pa pala final enough?)

But flip-flopping by Corona is so blatant that it invites derision. After declaring, with all the gravitas his person and position could allow him, that a report that he and members of his family owned property in the United States was “not true 101 percent,” Corona yesterday admitted that one of his daughters indeed owned a house in California. But the house, he clarified, was bought “dirt cheap” due to the housing crisis in the United States. Whaa? A “dirt cheap” house is so inconsequential the Chief Justice could forget all about it? So was the report by Rappler’s Raissa Robles just 99 percent untrue?

Even more intriguing is the news that the house is not conjugal property, or owned jointly by Corona’s daughter Charina (according to one defense lawyer) and her husband, but rather Charina’s personal property since her husband signed a waiver to it. What then do we make of lawyer Tranquil Salvador’s assertion that the house in Roseville, California, was “bought by [Corona’s] daughter using her and her husband’s hard-earned money”?

Add to the intrigue and questions the fact that the same lucky Charina bought, just 22 days later, a property in McKinley Hill in Taguig, one of the more desirable (and expensive) enclaves for the privileged in Metro Manila.

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So maybe now it’s time for another high court flip-flop, this time reversing the ruling protecting the secrecy of dollar deposits in the country, even in impeachment trials such as that the Chief Justice is undergoing, where corruption and hidden wealth (of whatever currency) are central issues.

As Supreme Court Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno pointed out in her dissenting opinion on that ruling, it would only send a signal to all other corrupt members of the bureaucracy, including justices of the high court, that all they have to do is convert their ill-gotten wealth into dollars so they could enjoy their loot in total secrecy.

Uncovering Corona’s dollar stash could settle once and for all whether he had (or has) the wherewithal to buy property in the United States, and uncover as well the source of all that dollar-denominated wealth. Maybe we should ask Charina, too, to reveal her own personal accounts to justify her capability to buy a house, even if it was bought “dirt cheap,” in California.

Some senators have speculated out loud that however grievous Corona’s SALN errors and shortcomings are, they may not constitute “high crimes” grievous enough to justify his removal from office. Then let’s go back to the question of character. Is flip-flopping not a sign of inability to stick by one’s guns? Is not the ability to decide on a case relying on nothing but the rule of law and the principles of civilized society, and stick by that decision, a necessity for a judge, let alone the Chief Justice? Is Corona qualified to remain in office?

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Is public trust in the nation’s Chief Justice—and the institution he heads—important? I would think so.

If people do not trust, do not believe in the honesty, probity, integrity and intelligence of the nation’s top judges, then every decision made by the Supreme Court, the “court of (supposedly) last resort,” would be open to question. And our legal system would never find any sort of satisfying closure, since even decisions deemed “final and executory” could still be “massaged” the other way, due to any number of factors: letters signed by influential lawyers, political pressure, or units in high-end condominium buildings.

Alarming, then, are the findings of a survey organized by the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP) and conducted among college students in five universities across the country that distrust ratings for Corona hovered around 70 percent. The majority of the more than 2,000 respondents also said Corona was not fit to remain in office.

Take note that most of the respondents said they followed the televised trial either “occasionally or on a regular basis.” So this is opinion based on a close acquaintance with the facts, and appreciation of the way these facts and opinions have been organized. “We have to consider the impact that the evidence presented in the impeachment trial had on the trust of the youth, especially because the trial is also a political process in which the youth have a stake,” an SCAP official said.

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Congratulations to Ramon San Pascual, executive director of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD), for being elected the new executive director of the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD).

San Pascual thus becomes the first Filipino chosen to head the operations of an international NGO pursuing legislation and policies on the direct linkage between population and sustainable human development as well as the promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The information was disclosed by Rep. Edcel Lagman (Albay-Ind.), PLCPD chair and AFPPD deputy secretary general, and the moving spirit behind the RH bill. San Pascual’s appointment “will give additional impetus for the approval of the RH bill which has gained tremendous public support,” Lagman said.