SC’s verdict on Truth Commission stinks
By Jason de Asis

SENATE OFFICE, Manila, December 9, 2010-Like many Filipinos wishing to high heavens that justice will be served in this country, my heart bleeds over the Supreme Court decision declaring as unconstitutional the Truth Commission tasked to investigate former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s alleged anomalies during her scandalous nine-year tenure at Malacañang.

I agonize upon hearing the SC verdict because it only heightens my suspicion that this High Court is a pro-GMA Court no matter the claims of one of its spokesperson that even justice appointed by GMA cast a dissenting vote.

At a time when the trust in the High Tribunal was being eroded because of being identified with the previous Malacañang occupant, and considering the run-ins between President Aquino and Chief Justice Renato Corona, this latest High Court ruling will only add fuel to the fire. The Truth Commission would have been the perfect avenue for redress of grievances against GMA’s unlamented administration whose lap dogs are now crying political harassment despite achieving legendary status in harassing their political rivals and making a mockery of decency in government.

Senator Pangilinan’s view that the good image and reputation of the SC  might have unwittingly created public perceptions that the former president cannot be investigated and cannot be held liable for her actions rings true at this point in time when the entire Filipino people want to have GMA probed for her maladministration.
Pangilinan was right in saying the SC decision will surely sadden the Filipino people for it is an outright disrespect to them by not investigating the former President to be answerable for the abuses and corruption during her administration. Sadden could even be an understatement. Angry could be the more appropriate word. And it could anger a nation to rise up not against the incumbent but against a notoriously unpopular former leader whose rise to power was never above suspicion juts like her equally discredited husband.

For the decision to give the SC a bad image is to me a wrong supposition. The SC’s image has long been tarnished, starting when it interpreted Erap’s departure from Malacañang at the height of Edsa Dos as constructive resignation when no such word existed in our jurisprudence. As the court of last resort, it is quite disappointing that the justices would try to block efforts to investigate a former president and in the words of Pangilinan, served as stumbling block in the Aquino administration’s anti-corruption efforts.
 
GMA for sure will be grinning from ear to ear with her trademark “pang-inis” na ngisi but at the end of the day, we still hope that the former president will inevitably be held liable for the scandals that rocked her administration.
 
Given this early SC Christmas gift to GMA, however, there is still no basis for this optimism. If I may, bahala na lang ang Diyos kay GMA. (Jason de Asis)