Hi Roming thanks for the article from a third party point of view having a political career can be quite hazardous to one health in Philippine unless one can stomach it. Comparing Singapore and Philippine, Singapore can be safe haven worst to worst they gun down each other in words and debates.
Posted by Roming
Most RP judges prefer to write long opinions on easy questions that require the use of wisdom. Rulings consisting of 20 plus pages single-spaced on long bond are not rare. Court opinions become unnecessarily extended in cases where judges comb judicial doctrines looking for exceptions to general rules.
Plain wisdom/skill
In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren had convinced his court to vote 9-0 to nullify an 1896 decision that "separate but equal" was not segregation. He dismissed Plessy in one sentence as a case involving "transportation but not education." Warren's opinion consisted of less than 15 pages (in long hand).
Warren wrote: That segregation taught a bad lesson, because "to separate children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone."
Constitution's demands
Harvard law scholar Peter Irons asks: What good is the Constitution if government officials refuse to obey its commands? Warren's unanimous opinion in Brown was hailed as 20th century's most important judicial act.
Author Irons writes: "Earl Warren made no pretensions of legal scholarship, but no other justice ever matched his political skills" to convince giants like Robert Jackson and Felix Frankfurter, the nation's two veteran judicial scholars.
Wisdom and political skills are needed by RP officials to douse all rumors of troubles/crises before and after May 10 and before and after June 30 to welcome a new government.
In old banlon
TV cameras caught one DND official wearing a faded banlon parading before his troops in shiny uniform. The officers with this official appeared more respectable, smart and competent. How could officialdom confer rank on a high official who badly needed a polo barong in lieu of banlon, the most popular T-shirt of BoC employees in the mid-1950s.
In Quezon's time
In Quezon's time, according to observers, Cabinet members and high officials were denied entry to the Palace if they broke protocol by wearing improper shoes - combination of brown and white dots/holes and white soles. There was no banlon in the mid-1930s, but officials dressed smartly and properly.
Cause of mutiny?
The acting justice secretary's evaluation of evidence in the Maguindanao massacre persuaded his prosecutors to mutiny or angrily protest at DoJ. What's that time-honored cliché again? That two or three heads are definitely better than one.
Freeing two influential family members some three weeks before May 10, to most people, defies both human and official wisdom. It means they can go home to Maguindanao and conduct the "usual campaign" for kin and friends to insure a continuing dominance of provincial life, probably of the kind that has prevailed over the years.
Heightens anger
This act defies conventional/traditional wisdom that can heighten anger, anxieties and grievances. Families who lost their kin in the massacre, including the kin and friends of 32 murdered journalists, will definitely express rage verging on open uprising.
To the normal minds it's wisdom, more than being right, that brings safety and peace of mind to all. Reckless decisions may not be called courageous. There's no boldness in any official act that decreases people's trust and preferences.
People affected by this decision can be compared to motorists who are prone to road rage.
No previous incident
Most lawyers in RP can't recall an incident when prosecutors expressed outrage against their own superior or the Secretary of Justice. Grievances by public servants against high officials are fully protected by the Constitution, specifically the Bill of Rights.
Who can overrule Agra?
When prosecutors openly express grievance and anger against their superiors this is a cause of serious concern to all officialdom. The better judgment is to have a third view on the subject.
The Palace can overrule, sustain or affirm Mr. Agra's order to exclude two family members. But this is a case that involves emotion - like vengeance - and being right is beyond the understanding of the victims' kin and friends.
Comments are welcome at roming@pefianco.com
