The first of these decisions resulted in giving validity to a void constitution. In 1973, while President Ferdinand Marcos ruled the Philippines under martial law, he issued a proclamation stating that the people had ratified a new constitution which made his dictatorial powers permanent.
The second of these decisions legitimated the removal of an elected president outside of the impeachment process. In 2001, there was a people power revolt (Edsa II) because the Senate, acting as an impeachment court trying then President Joseph Estrada, refused to open a sealed envelope widely suspected of containing proof of Estrada’s secret bank account with deposits of hundreds of millions of pesos. The revolt convinced both police and military forces to withdraw their support from Estrada.
The third of these decisions validated the appointment of a chief justice despite its clear nullity under the Constitution. Two days after the 2010 presidential election and a month before her term was to expire, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appointed Renato Corona as chief justice. The appointment violated the literal prohibition in the Constitution which does not allow appointments three months before a presidential election and up to the end of the incumbent president’s term. The Supreme Court created a virtual exception by declaring that the prohibition does not apply to appointments in the high court.
Now comes this fourth decision which, just like in the Estrada case, removed another impeachable official—Sereno—by judicial action. I had previously criticized the resort to quo warranto, and argued that the impeachment route should be followed. But beyond legalities, there are thorny issues that should have made the justices leave matters to the impeachment process, like the animosity toward Sereno because of her character and personality which gravely infuriate her colleagues, and the rancor over the ouster of then Chief Justice Corona, to mention a few.
heartbreaking.
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