The Philippine Online Chronicles

Chief Justice Renato Corona has called President Benigno S. Aquino III’s bluff.

The President and his allies probably thought-- nay, wished-- that the Chief Justice would just resign to spare himself of the humiliation of being put on trial, or to spare the country and the Supreme Court of a protracted drama that would consume the nation’s energies. After all, given the breathtaking blitzkrieg of an impeachment that the administration coalition had managed to pull off, and the overwhelming public support for the President’s and his army of congressmen’s actions, Mr. Corona appeared to be in a disadvantage. They were wrong.

Instead of stepping down, Mr. Corona mounted an immediate counter-offensive. Mobilizing thousands of court employees in what looked like a political rally-- which many observers believe is a dereliction of duty, since the Supreme Court itself has ruled that government employees are not allowed to skip work and hold a strike-- the Chief Justice defiantly assailed the impeachment complaint as an assault not only his person but on the Supreme Court as an institution itself. He accused the President of trying to establish a dictatorship.

“I have not wronged you, Mr. President. I don’t have any sins against the people,” the Chief Justice said. “I oppose this relentless persecution, intimidation and bullying. I oppose this dictatorship that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III is slowly establishing.”

Mr. Corona’s resignation would have been the best outcome for Malacanang. It would have allowed the President to spare his remaining political capital and spend it instead on pursuing a closure on the allegations of kleptocracy and corruption of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s nine-year regime. But not only did Mr. Corona not step down, he was able to rally to his side the Judiciary, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) and Senator Joker Arroyo. It looks like Mr. Corona is not just a magistrate; he’s a politician too.

The rally at the Supreme Court, which this author personally witnessed, has two important indications, both of which are not very good for the President.

Firstly, it marks, in effect, a formal declaration of war by the Judiciary versus the Executive. While this war has been going on since President Aquino’s inauguration, the Judiciary has always tried to paint the illusion that it is still above this conflict; that it is above the political fray. But today, the Supreme Court has joined the fray. It has stooped down to the Executive’s level, so to speak.

What this means is that the President should now expect a Supreme Court that is more combative. As long as Mr. Corona’s group of perceived Arroyo loyalists retains the majority in the Court, it should be expected to be more vigorous in making rulings against the President’s interests. Having been widely accused of impropriety, Mr. Corona’s group would have nothing to lose, after all.

For instance, while the Chief Justice is under trial in the Senate, Mr. Corona’s group could grant Mrs. Arroyo’s request to declare the joint panel of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that indicted her for electoral sabotage unconstitutional, thereby voiding her arrest. This would incense the President who might view this as a sign that there’s also a need to impeach the other justices, a politically-taxing exercise that would most likely dissuade many of the President’s allies.

Secondly, notice that Mr. Corona, who is known to be more comfortable in English, spoke in Tagalog yesterday. It appears that he was shedding his aloof, if not imperious, image. He is directly appealing to the public in an apparent attempt to win public opinion.

The trial in the Senate would most likely be protracted—there are eight articles of impeachment!—and the more it drags on, the more chance there would be for the Chief Justice to explain himself while simultaneously running an intensive public relations campaign against Malacanang. And unfortunately for the President, Mr. Corona’s handlers have enough ammunition to re-frame the on-going political war in such a way that the President could appear to be the bad guy.

Perhaps the most powerful of these ammunitions is Hacienda Luisita. Deciding favorably for the farmers on the question of how the Hacienda would be re-distributed would be the perfect counter-attack against the President in the court of public opinion, as the Court could easily frame the impeachment trial as a presidential vendetta to avenge the loss of the Aquino-Coujangco family’s crown jewel. The Hacienda, after all, represents for the public a lingering doubt of President Aquino’s real intentions. In fact, even before the impeachment, Arroyo apologists like Rigoberto Tiglao have been vigorously referring to the Luisita connection in an obvious attempt to spin the Palace-Faura row; and many well-intentioned individuals and other social justice advocates have, in good faith, raised this Luisita link as well. They seem to forget that the President’s crusade against the Chief Justice actually began long before the Supreme Court unanimously ruled for the Hacienda’s dismantlement and re-distribution.

Clearly, the risks of President Aquino’s decision to unleash the full might of the powers and influence of the presidency against the Chief Justice are now manifesting. I suspect that the decision to impeach was in fact a rash one, and many of those who have read the articles of impeachment would probably agree.

The spat between the President and the Chief Justice has now become a total war, one that could even be a part of Mrs. Arroyo’s game plan. This war would clearly be a long one, with both sides likely to go all out for broke. It remains to be seen if the President is prepared for the protracted battles ahead.

The key is for the President to maintain the public’s support. Right now, that’s the single most formidable advantage he has. Given that the articles of impeachment do not seem to be very strong, the overwhelming public support for Mr. Corona’s ouster must be maintained so it could force the hand of the senators, who would surely be voting on the basis of political considerations, to convict the Chief Justice. This entails mobilizing the President’s allies to keep fueling the anti-Corona fire among the public, while at the same time dodging the attacks from Mr. Corona’s camp.

More importantly, as New York Times correspondent Carlos Conde said, this entails, for the President, pressing for a speedy re-distribution of Hacienda Luisita so as to remove the public's lingering doubts on his intentions. This is of course assuming that indeed his real motivation in impeaching Mr. Corona is merely to bring Mrs. Arroyo to justice and nothing else.

JJ Domingo blogs at The Nutbox (@the_nutbox on Twitter).

Stock photo by Blog Watch. Some rights reserved.