angelic moo

Chief Justice Reynato Puno ’s lukewarm response to pressure to make the Judicial and Bar Council ’s records open to the public is even more disappointing in light of the fact that the Chief Justice has made significant steps to address other issues gripping the country. For his work, and there is a lot of it since he became Chief Justice at the end of 2006, was recognized by the Manila Times when the broadsheet chose him to be “Times Person of the year.” (Rene Q. Bas, Chief Justice Puno: Times Person of the Year , Manila Times, December 30, 2007.”) The Times recognized the Chief Justice’ accomplishments which include the introduction of the writ of amparo and the writ of habeas data to stop the spate of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the country. They are intended to address the weakness of the petition for habeas corpus. The Chief Justice noted that petitions for habeas corpus usually end up with state agents simply denying they had the missing person in...

In my last post I discussed the secret records of the Judicial and Bar Council. Chief Justice Reynato Puno had a very terse and disappointing response to the issue: According to Newsbreak, he said, “I don’t mind telling the public how I vote. But it has to be a consensus [of the JBC].” This is a very peculiar response, especially from the Chief Justice. The clamor for making the records to the public implicates more than the preferences of the members of the JBC; it implicates transparency and accountability of government officials. Instead of addressing the merits of the concerns, the Chief Justice—the Chair of the JBC—shrugs his shoulders and says the JBC refuses to make its records public so there is nothing he can do about it. It would be a very dark day in public service if all our officials are as dismissive about transparency and accountability.