InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines — Justices and judges were disturbed by President Benigno Aquino III’s speech that took a swipe at the Supreme Court and Chief Justice Renato Corona, according to the high tribunals' spokesman and Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez.
"It is not at all unusual for the executive branch to disagree with the judicial branch but what is considerably unusual is for the chief executive to look down on members of the judiciary in public.”
Marquez issued the statement after hearing the sentiments of some justices of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Sandiganbayan, and judges of the lower courts.
Just a few meters away from Corona, the chief executive on Monday delivered his speech during the first National Criminal Justice Summit held at the Manila Hotel starting with his frustration over the decision of the high court to declare his first executive order creating the Truth Commission as unconstitutional.
Moreover, Aquino dished out a series of tirades against the high tribunal, including its issuance of a temporary restraining order on the watchlist order issued by the Department of Justice against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel.
Marquez stressed that the executive and the judiciary along with the legislative are co-equal branches of government.
“It must likewise be recognized that no one department has an overruling influence over the other regardless of how popular one branch is at a given period of time as the accumulation of all powers in the same hands whether one, a few or many or whether appointed or elected may justly be the very definition of tyranny,” Marquez said.
He further noted that it was "quite ironic" that Aquino delivered his speech at an event organized by the Supreme Court, Department of Justice and Department of Interior and Local Government where coordination and cooperation are necessary among all branches of government to make an effective criminal justice system.
Marquez nonethelss assured that the high court would continue to perform its mandate and coordinate with the executive branch in improving the country’s penal system.
