E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Carpe diem, seeker of the right
Sunday, 10 29, 2006
Last Wednesday, the voting — 8 against, 7 in favor — was too close to call, and there was a mad scramble to find out how each one of our honorable members of the Supreme Court voted. After all, in the run-up to D-day, rumors had been flying fast about the frenzied efforts of Malacañang to secure votes in favor of the petition on people’s initiative (PI).
Justice Antonio “Tony” Tirol Carpio, of Paoay, Ilocos Norte and Davao City, was not much of a factor in the numbers game. It had been conceded by many that his vote would be on the side of Malacañang. After all, in this petition that would make or break the stranglehold on power of Gloria Arroyo, for varied reasons known to many, there was no one else among those 15 members of the High Court who would most likely be the Malacañang spear carrier than Justice Carpio.
Former Benguet Rep. Ronald Cosalan, who knows Justice Carpio too well, said just last week over coffee at Seattle’s Best that all the rumors about Tony were just that — rumors. He said Justice Carpio lives by a self-imposed raison d’etre that makes him a seeker of the right. Meaning, Tony will vote on the side of the right, the moral and the decorous, Cosalan said. Meaning further, that Justice Carpio has been known to live by a credo that negates existence for merely petty, narrow and selfish reasons; nor a life that will serve as an instrument of glory-seeking individuals and glamor-seeking upstarts.
Justice Carpio’s ponencia on the PI case is a defining moment of carpe diem. He has seized the day. He has defined himself as on the side of the virtuous and upright, not on the mercenary side; he has aligned himself where right makes might, not where the glitter of lucre and the arrogance of power make every thing seem right; he has declared himself a seeker of the right in the High Court, not a pushover for the misleading blandishments of those in power; he has proclaimed his independence of mind, instead of parroting the warped logic of pseudo-patriots. Justice Carpio has finally burned his bridges to the Palace and courageously broke the spear that weighed heavily on his arms.
In condemning the cavalier treatment by Sigaw ng Bayan of the amendatory provision of the Constitution, the strong words of Justice Carpio should chastise Gloria Arroyo, and remind her that there is a high court that will cut her megalomania down to size every time she trifles with the Constitution.
And thank you, Justice Carpio, for putting to rest what Senator Edgardo Angara called a “huge political uncertainty.”
Let’s hear it once more from Justice Carpio’s erudite ponencia: “This court cannot betray its primordial duty to defend and protect the Constitution. The Constitution, which embodies the people’s sovereign will, is the bible of this court. This court exists to defend and protect the Constitution. To allow this constitutionally infirm initiative, propelled by deceptively gathered signatures, to alter basic principles in the Constitution, is to allow the desecration of the Constitution. To allow such alteration and desecration is to lose this Court’s raison d’etre.”
Then again, he said: “To allow such change in the fundamental law is to set adrift the Constitution in uncharted waters, to be tossed and turned by every dominant political group of the day. If this court allows today a cavalier change in the Constitution outside the constitutionally prescribed modes, tomorrow the new dominant political group that comes in will demand its own set of changes in the same cavalier and unconstitutional fashion. A revolving-door Constitution does not augur well for the rule of law in this country.”
For quite a while, the High Court has been pilloried — at times wrongly, oftentimes rightly — for its political decisions or for its incursions into the political realm, as when it “legitimized” the ascension to the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2001. So, even as it rebuffed Malacañang four times in the recent past on constitutional issues — the latest being its 15-0 vote against the constitutionality of a provision that would shield the grafters in government from legislative investigation - a suspicion lingered in everybody’s mind that the High Court would set us up for the kill on that one threshold issue on the PI.
Now, with a majority, however slim, that thrives in the High Court in regard to what Justice Carpio describes as the defense and protection of the Constitution, we can now do battle with Malacañang on every constitutional issue, and expect to get a fair shake from our honorable justices. That Justice Carpio sits in the High Court is assurance enough to everyone, including those whom Iloilo Rep. Rolex Suplico counseled not to relax their guards against pressures exerted on its distinguished members.
Feb. 13, 1974. On this date, with all the exuberance of youth, I scribbled this entry in my diary: “Kon-ar Tony keyoks! 7-1!! Olats apb!!!” Our Grand Archon in the Sigma Rho then was a stalwart named Tony Carpio. With him at the helm of this fraternity that seeks the right, always, we trounced our adversaries in those intramurals Sigma Rho is famous — or notorious — for winning with accustomed ease.
Oct. 25, 2006. On this date, every Filipino, every seeker of the right, should etch in the diary of his heart: “I am proud of Justice Carpio!!! 8-7!!! We won!!!”
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