Simple GMRC standards for judges to be respectable

Among the enduring standards we hold judges against is found in Canon 2 of the Code of Judicial Conduct: “A judge should so behave at all times as to promote public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”  In other words, a magistrate must at all times be the embodiment and epitome of good manners and right conduct (GMRC)—something taught even as early as in grade school. And we are talking here of the basic norms of civility in a Third World country like the Philippines. We shudder to imagine what stratospheric degree of behavioral refinement is expected in the arena of well-developed countries around the globe.

Not a few Filipinos wished so hard for Sen.  Miriam Defensor-Santiago to shed her rude manners and morph into a fine lady-jurist before the time comes for her to grace the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, with her presence. She herself said the ICC may call her to report for duty as one of the judges anytime soon. While that should give Filipinos the pride and the thrill of having one of them stand out so eminently in world affairs (as even the delusional prospect of seeing a new pontiff in the person of Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle had sent them reeling in delirium), what we read in the papers and saw on national TV about her recently has sent our high hopes nose-diving into a bottomless abyss!

Consider the words that just came out of her mouth: “Kung  hindi  lang  matanda  ’yan,  suntukin  ko  ’yan  ngayon” (alluding to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile); “Itong  tao  na  ito,  hindi  ko  alam  kung  tao  ba  ’to,  babae  or  third  sex  ito” (obviously deriding Sen. Panfilo “Ping”  Lacson whom she earlier called “Pinky”); and then some (Inquirer, 3/16/13). While her fawning fans might have been amused beyond themselves by such drivel, that was totally uncalled for by any elementary GMRC standards.  And coming as it does from one who is about to represent the country in a very prestigious tribunal the whole world looks up to, such childishness is so inexplicably appalling! Former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban said membership in a tribunal, indeed, requires “high moral character” (Inquirer, 3/17/13). And therein lies the pickle!

Is it any wonder our own Supreme Court justices had frowned upon the mere thought of having her sit among them? She had peremptorily called them a “company of idiots” (after she was denied the honor of being even considered for the vacant post of chief justice then). The only thing that stopped the Supreme Court from punishing her for contempt was her “parliamentary immunity.”

—GEORGE DEL MAR,

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