It’s up to us kids

Chief Justice Corona has gotten a bad rap lately from PNoy in the same way that the messenger is blamed for the message.  I cannot blame the President.      The image of Corona as a midnight appointee of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been strengthened in the public mind by his consistently voting in her favor.  Based on the outcome of the 19 cases before the Supreme Court, GMA unbelievably won the series by a judicial sweep of 19 to none.   The extraordinary manner and speed with which the cases had been disposed of seemed a judicial feat.  I hope it’s indeed a judicial feat for I don’t wish the Chief Justice with the law of “three strikes and you’re out.”  Surely it is no wonder why the public finds the Chief Justice’s persistent claim of judicial independence quite unsettling and impartiality simply suspicious.   How can one not be unsettled or suspicious when his actions fall right smack of a preferential treatment, if not, a debt of gratitude.  Now it must be admitted, albeit regretfully, that when you owe someone a debt of gratitude, you can’t really do anything.  In the end, you are not in a position to render a judgment inimical to your patron.     That is why I cannot understand the temerity of some legal luminaries who decided to unapologetically mock PNoy as a dictator for simply exposing and reminding us of how a co-equal branch of the government is being turned into a dungeon of partiality rather than a safe haven of impartiality.   How can some of our legal luminaries easily forget how the high tribunal decided on the disqualification of FPJ, the Mega Pacific Contract, the Hello Garci, the NBN-ZTE scandal, just to name a few, which they themselves lamented?  I wish the Maguindanao Massacre gets that kind of attention.   If some of them have now turned into curmudgeons with short memories, why would they be a party to protecting the interests of the few at the expense of the many?  And why would they turn their backs on the things that they should do to protect the sanctity of our legal institutions?   PNoy’s alleged reputation for malevolence is undeserved.  I do not regard him as a corrupt or an evil person who is bent on destroying our governmental institutions.  On the contrary, I find him sincere and determined in his intention to get rid of people who are using our very institutions for their own hidden agenda.  I think the President is on the right track to protect all branches of the government whether it is the executive, legislative, or judiciary from the existing and potential abuses of those who populate them.   I am sorry to say this---but in general, I have been disappointed with how our elders behave lately towards PNoy and his cabinet.  They have not been good role models for the younger generation.  I am particularly disappointed because these elders who still wander the corridors of power could have changed things around before, and yet, they failed us over and over again.   Notwithstanding their own failures, some have now decided for the jugular attack of the relatively younger generation of leaders who needed their guidance.  I am anticipating an unrelenting and merciless dressing down of PNoy and his cabinet as a bunch of immature kids and bozos governing the country like a college student council.   I think it is absurd, if not, disingenuous to criticize the current leadership as “a bunch of political lightweights.”  For one, I cannot make sense of such a notion especially when the criticisms emanate from the so-called self-proclaimed “political heavyweights” who failed in the past and are still failing under their respective tenures as local or national leaders.   But why are we like this?  Is it because Philippine politics is just plain dirty?  Or is it because we are just the hopeless descendants of pricks?  Is there a solution to this?  Or we just wait until these old bastards are dead.     Well, I guess, as they say: “it’s up to us kids.” ___________________________ The author is a professor and director of Urban Studies Program at California State University, East Bay and an urban and regional planning consultant. Email:efren.padilla@csueastbay.edu