Suspicious haste

SUDDENLY the justices of the Supreme Court are so eager to solve a case. The Supreme Court is not an institution known for coming up with fast decisions. We give it the benefit of the doubt--maybe there are so circumspect in studying the cases in front of them, maybe they are so overloaded with many important cases, maybe they take a looong time to deliberate because of the weightiness of their decisions. Then all of a sudden they decided to break their summer vacation to deliberate on the case of CJ Sereno on the Quo Warranto petition! Not only that! They agreed to move their meeting one week earlier, from May 17 as originated set, to May 11.  Not only that! Even before their meeting, leaks have already come out that the decision is already done to oust Sereno! Suddenly the Supreme Court justices have been prompt – suspiciously too prompt even - to give a decision on the quo warranto petition. Why are they hurrying? What could the reasons behind the suspicious haste?

Is it really so important that Sereno should be ousted at this time? The matter of the SALN that is the reason why they claim the appointment of Sereno is defective is the same matter that is set on the impeachment case against her in congress. Why not let the Chief Justice  go through the usual and uncontroversial route of the impeachment process? I suspect that the SALN case is weak, and it may not get the nod of the senators. I suspect that in the impeachment process in the Senate CJ Sereno can have the chance to explain herself in public on this matter while in the quo warranto case the poor lady does not have her day in court. I suspect that the aggrieved justices want to execute the Chief Justice by their own hands, rather than give her the chance to exonerate herself. I suspect that the brains behind this dubious scheme does not want the public to have the time to digest the meaning of the case against the  Chief Justice. Oh, so many theories can be conjured because of the suspicious haste that this matter is being pursued.

But the people will not stand by. Most of the Filipino people do not know the intricacies of the law but they have their own sense of what is right and what is wrong, and they are not fooled even by those who claim to hold the office of interpreting the law. The manipulation of interpreting the law is so blatant! The schemes to control the Supreme Court and the institutions of democracy in the country are so glaring! The end game is total control of the government and manipulation of the people! The innate sense of the people is aware of this and the people will move, maybe not as fast as the justices now, but they will move and hold the schemers accountable!