"The Office of the Solicitor General is a redundant office."
"The Office of the Solicitor General is a redundant office."
People who are not very knowledgeable about the dynamics and nuances of high-level governance may not realize it, but a fierce dispute is in progress between two Duterte administration officials who can both be said to be government’s chief lawyer: the individual who heads the DOJ (Department of Justice) and the individual who goes by the title of Solicitor General. The bone of contention is the application of the nation’s largest broadcasting network for the renewal of its franchise, which expired on May 4.
Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra has taken the position that, pending the consideration of ABS-CBN’s application by the franchise-granting House of Representatives, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) can, and should, grant the network a provisional authority. The DOJ chief suggested that the two houses of Congress pass a joint resolution authorizing NTC to issue the provisional authority.
Mr. Guevarra noted that there was no clear-cut provision of law indicating the status of a media network during the pendency of its application for a franchise extension. “When there is a gap in the law, equity comes in to fill (it). Equity is the principle by which substantial justice may be attained in cases where the prescribed or customary forms of ordinary law are inadequate,” the Secretary of Justice declared.
In contrast, Solicitor General Jose Calida – the person who is usually referred to as “the government’s chief lawyer” – has no interest in equity; his only intent is legalities and the dura lex sed lex kind of legal argumentation. A few weeks ago, Mr. Calida firmed up his claim to the name Mr. Quo Warranto by filing with the Supreme Court a quo warranto petition directed at ABS-CBN. In the petition, Mr. Calida virtually threw the proverbial kitchen sink at the Kapamilya network. And at the beginning of this month the Solicitor General wrote the threatening letter – the threat being of prosecution under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act if the NTC commissioners did not immediately dispatch a CDO against ABS-CBN. Notwithstanding the fact that he had told a Senate committee hearing that he was disposed to grant ABS-CBN a provisional authority, NTC chairman Gamaliel Cordoba was so terrified by Jose Calida’s letter that he joined his two fellow-commissioners in issuing the CDO to ABS-CBN.
There we have it: the spectacle of the government’s two chief lawyers differing on an issue in so public a manner. It should not be happening, but it is happening because two officials – the head of the Cabinet department mandated to dispense justice and an individual whose official title is Solicitor General – claim to be, and are performing the functions of, the chief lawyer of the government.
This is an untenable situation. The government cannot be represented by two chief lawyers. The law creating the OSG as an independent office was a mistake; at best the legislators should have upgraded the DOJ’s Office of the Prosecutor General by transferring to it the responsibilities that Jose Calida is so obviously relishing.
In sum, OSG is a redundant office. The government must have only one chief lawyer, namely, the Secretary of Justice. Unless and until the redundancy is corrected, the people of this country are likely to witness the occurrence of another ABS-CBN-like dispute between the Secretary of Justice and the so-called “chief government lawyer.”