Cebu groups slam 'oust CJ Puno' moves
By CARINE M. ASUTILLA , ABS-CBN Central Visayas | 01/13/2009 11:49 PM
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ Cebu and Cebu City Chapter, Cebu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) judges, representatives of law universities and students and civil society groups signed a statement condemning the reported plan in Congress to impeach Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Reynato Puno because of a leak on an unofficial SC decision on an election case.
Spokesperson of Cebu City RTC Judge Gabriel Ingles said that after a report about the alleged ouster moves against Puno, Executive Judge Meinrado Paredes gathered the consensus of all the judges through text messaging and came up with the Statement of Deep Concern.
The judges said that though the plot to oust Puno is still unverified, the issue has been so loud that they need to express their gravest concern.
The judges maintain that they see Puno as someone who exercises judicial independence. They believe that he is an obstacle to any politicians who wants to “destroy our democracy in order to stay forever in power and place our country under the rule of men not law.”
Lawyer Noel Adlawan, Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu chapter president, said he also believes that any move to take away Puno from his position is in line with the administrations’ call for Charter change. He said that Puno has been expressing his disagreement on Cha-cha.
Lawyer Briccio Boholst, IBP-Cebu City chapter president, said that they are bothered with the reported move to oust Puno. Boholst said that the intervention of the other branches on the judicial system has happened before during the time of former Chief Justice Hilario Davide.
“There is another attempt to influence the Supreme Court, this must be stopped and the other branches of the government should be called on to respect the separation of power,” Boholst said.
Law student leader, Aaron Pedrosa says that if Puno would be impeached, it would leave the justice system with President Arroyo’s allies. Pedrosa said that Arroyo had appointed seven of her allies to work in the judiciary.
Mark Chang, National Association of Law Students in the Philippines national president, said however that it is just political maneuvering.
“This ouster move on January 19 by our own lawmakers is a political maneuvering. We call on the Malacañang to spare the judiciary from politics,” said Chang.
Chang also said that if the lawmakers will continue their plan, it will only suggest that they are biased. He said that the impeachment complaint against Puno is groundless and immature compared to the impeachment complaint filed against President Arroyo
.
“There was this substantial complaint against Arroyo but they chose to ignore it,” Chang said.
Civil society representatives also defended Puno. Vince Cinches, Fisherfolks Development Center executive director, said that Puno has been strong in implementing easy access of justice to marginalized people. He said that if Puno would be impeached, the last bulwark of democracy would be lost.
Dennis Abarrientos, Karapatan - Central Visayas secretary general, meanwhile said that during Puno’s term as chief justice, many political killings were brought back to court because of the writ of amparo and habeas data. He said that losing Puno in the position would mean killing the hope of the families to bring justice to their love ones who are victims of political killings.
The group further stated that despite the fact that the country is facing several problems including lay-offs and unemployment, and climate calamities, some members of Congress are “still pushing for their own personal agenda.”
They said that Congress should instead come up with a bill to address the problem on global warming affecting human and economic development. They are also asking Congress to produce a substantial bill that would protect human rights.
The group strongly believes that the call for impeachment of Puno has become a political tool to serve selfish political ends.
The joint statement signed by the representatives from different sectors in the society would be given to the House of Representatives and to the Office of the President.
They are calling other civil groups to join in condemning the plan of impeachment against Puno.
2 comments:
yen, what i said during the press con was if puno would be removed as CJ, the SC would be left with arroyo appointees. for 2009, about 7 justices would be replaced by GMA appointees...the ouster move is hence an attempt at reducing the judiciary into a mere stamppad of the arroyo government.
jose aaron pedrosa, jr.
yen, what i said during the press con was if puno would be removed as CJ, the SC would be left with arroyo appointees. for 2009, about 7 justices would be replaced by GMA appointees...the ouster move is hence an attempt at reducing the judiciary into a mere stamppad of the arroyo government.
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