One day, two momentous political decisions. The Supreme Court, the ultimate decider of controversies, had a very busy International Women’s Day.
By allowing Senator Grace Poe to run for president in May, the high court sent a strong message that it will let the people decide the fate of the candidate who has been leading voter preference surveys for many months. And when the court ordered the Commission on Elections to provide receipts for Filipinos casting their votes, it was saying that the government agency supervising the political exercise should be more transparent in doing its job.
Of course, no one outside of the 15 members of the high court has seen the actual decisions yet. And I am sure that when the rulings come out, everyone who has an interest in these two burning political issues will analyze them in the weeks to come.
But what’s clear at this point is that the court has decided to let the people (not their magistrates) determine who they want to lead them. And that it is not inclined to listen to the dire warnings of those who want a quicker election while sacrificing the need of the voters to be reassured that their choice of leaders has been clearly heard.
Taken together, the twin rulings indicate that the current court is not going to arrogate unto itself a job that belongs to the people itself. Nor will it allow a government agency like the Comelec to curtail the people’s right to be assured of a clean and honest election simply because it would delay the proceedings.
This is a populist court, for good or for ill. And that, by itself, is not necessarily a bad thing.
Surely, there is a lot of wisdom in keeping the members of the Supreme Court sequestered in their hushed chambers, there to behold and contemplate only the majesty of the law. But there is also something to be said for a court that looks beyond the laws and sees the people that they are made for, as well.
As US Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor once said: “I realized that people had an unreal image of me, that somehow I was a god on Mount Olympus. I decided that if I were going to make use of my role as a Supreme Court justice, it would be to inspire people to realize that, first, I was just like them and second, if I could do it, so could they.”
The two decisions announced yesterday, in my non-lawyerly view, were imbued with the tacit admission that while the court may know everything about the law, the people ultimately should know what’s best for them. And, in a democracy, that’s not such a bad idea.
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And like clockwork, the Aquino administration’s “peace partner” in Mindanao, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, is playing the ISIS card just because it didn’t get its Bangsamoro Basic Law. Boo-hoo.
“Now, after the non-passage of the [BBL], we are quite concerned that [ISIS] can capitalize on this, because the sentiment of the people in the area is now very strong. The frustrations after the non-passage of the law, they can capitalize on that,” MILF Chairman Murad Ebrahim told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
And here I was, believing an earlier statement from the rebel group to the effect that it was not going to let the BBL’s non-passage in Congress lead to a breakdown in the peace and order situation in Mindanao. Of course, Murad is talking about ISIS causing the violence this time—but I think this is just another of those “reversible jacket” ploys of the leaders of the long-running Muslim rebellion.
How so? Well, what Murad is basically saying is that, if clashes in Mindanao ensue, the MILF is not responsible—even if its own fighters will likely be involved. That’s like the MILF saying that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (who are actually interchangeable with Murad’s own troops), not the main rebel group, is behind the violence in rebel-held areas over the past few years.
ISIS, of course, will never be able to put up the stronghold that Murad says it will build in Mindanao without the participation of MILF’s fighters. But I guess, in Murad’s mind, the MILF cannot be blamed if ISIS successfully exports its particularly condemnable brand of jihadism hereabouts simply because the Philippine government failed to deliver its desired BBL.
What seems clear to me is that, as it was in Mamasapano last year, the MILF really cannot control even the fighters it claims are under its command. And that it will grasp any opportunity to reproach the government for not approving the BBL —even if it has to embrace ISIS to do that.