Missing the golden opportunity

BACKBENCHER

Rod P. Kapunan

4/28-29/2012

The Supreme Court decision declaring final its November 2011 ruling ordering the distribution of the remaining vestige of feudalism in this country now stands as a historic decision. That decision came at a time when the justices who were by appointed the previous administration are sought to be ousted and isolated. Unfortunately, despite the epochal ruling, the Aquino administration and its succeeding variety who, since 1986 have proclaimed themselves the beacon of our freedom, failed to understand that in this context freedom means the emancipation of the farmers from the bondage of the soil.

President Aquino miserably missed the golden opportunity of making himself a part of that history that saw by judicial fiat the phasing out of the slave-like feudalism in the country practiced no less than by the country's leading political hypocrites. The decision to distribute the 4,915.75 hectares of that infamous Hacienda Luisita is not an indication the courts of law had won in the land where the proverbial "rule of law" has been reduced to a mere parable often invoked by political kingpins, but reaffirmed that we still have a pulsating judicial system despite the notoriety of unbridled corruption. The decision delivers an ominous signal the Supreme Court is not a fence-sitter or a political appendage of the highly politicized executive department.

There was in that decision an assertion, despite the recent trauma generated by political tantrum, that the High Court is still capable of coming out with an independent judgment on a legal issue but often tends to metamorphose to a political issue. The decision has triggered a much deeper political impact, especially to the class who still nurtures feudalism as the backbone of their economic base. Maybe the presence of embattled Chief Justice Renato Corona highlighted the deep-seated contradiction between the Judiciary and the Executive branch, but still the chief justice managed to put a niche for himself by exhibiting what many of our people thought the "stupor decisions" that regularly comes out from the mill of judicial mediocrity.

In a narrower sense, the decision serves as a dire warning that the chief justice still wields a political clout within his turf; that should this lackluster government dare to push its luck, he could cause the entire political structure to tailspin. On a wider perspective, the decision is a reminder that the Judiciary remains an independent branch to reckon with; that it possess the same degree of power to blunt all attempts to politicize the courts, like the nasty practice of appointing minions acting more as acolytes than as judges and justices.

Some interpret the decision with less enthusiasm for the fact that only eight voted, while six voted against that specific resolution. However, they failed to decipher that those who voted were not against the substance of the issue that was resolved, which is to subdivide the feudal manor of the Cojuangcos, but on the amount to be compensated. In fact, we are the only country on this planet that continues to uphold compensation to every property taken when that right is conditional; that it could automatically be forfeited if it has been established the party seeking compensation violated the contract or has shown defiance to disobey the law or judgment.

The stock distribution option was in defiance of the Constitution that was tailored-made no less by the President-landowner to circumvent Section 4, Article XIII of the 1987 Constitution. More than that the minions of the yellow horde that lorded Congress proceeded to enact an outrageously unconstitutional law by passing R.A. No. 6657 to justify the giving of a scrap of paper instead of land as what land reform literally implies.

In that landmark decision, the justices exhibited the kind of political will our people did not expect. In fact, our common notion is only the executive branch of government is expected to exercise political will. Even on that score, our good-for-nothing landlord-President failed to grasp that his alleged popularity is below par from what normally is expected from a very popular President. He failed to take note the equation that it is not on how many voted for him, but on what he did while in office, which now tend to prove the lingering suspicion that his popularity was all propped up by his American handlers and by the mainstream media representing the various economic blocs in this country.

Indeed, the Hacienda Luisita decision helped much to boost the image of the Supreme Court that was badly battered by the political hijacker who appointed Corona to his post. But instead of rectifying that grave error, President Aquino aggravated the situation by commingling law with politics. Aquino has become brazen this time trying to bend and mold the institution for it to bow down to his whims. His brusqueness is detected as an attempt to cover up his incompetence. He is even childishly threatening to unleash anew his primeval "people power."

Thus, instead of cashing in on the bandwagon calling for land reform, he now tries to deflect that significant decision by refocusing on a problem there is no way we can resolve without the other party cooperating with us, and our possible conflict with China could only expose as fleeting our ecstatic euphoria of democracy and freedom, but that we have in our midst an absolute political dud.

(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)