As news stories on the revocation of Aling Gloria’s midnight appointments hug front page spaces and primetime slots, the issue of Aling Gloria’s appointment of Mr. Renato Corona as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court had, again, been brought to the surface. President Noynoy Aquino had, after all, expressed his recognition of Mr. Corona as Chief Justice. However, there are still some quarters who view PNoy’s recognition of the Chief Justice as a deviation from his stand on the issue during the campaign period.
There is a need to extricate Noynoy, the candidate, from Noynoy, the President.
There is absolutely nothing wrong when a candidate expresses his opinion without the baggage of having to consider all possible angles to an issue. His opinion is his, and being an ordinary citizen, he is entitled to that.
Noynoy is now PNoy, speaking as the President of all Filipinos. His freedom to express a personal opinion is no longer as absolute as it used to be, for he speaks not only to the Filipinos. More importantly, he had been given the responsibility to speak for the Filipinos.
I would not discount the very big possibility that his personal opinion with regards to the appointment of Mr. Renato Corona as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court may have remained up to now.
However, as the nation’s leader who had, so far, shown a brand of leadership by way of examples, I would not take it against Noynoy, the President, to, again, abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling on 20 April 2010 granting Aling Gloria the authority to appoint the successor of then Chief Justice Reynato Puno. As president, he is duty bound to ensure that crises of any form be prevented. His refusal to acknowledge Mr. Corona as Chief Justice will not only be allowing a constitutional crisis to happen; it would spark one to happen.
Had PNoy stood pat in his refusal to recognize Mr. Corona as Chief Justice, what, I wonder, would Noynoy bashers be complaining about?
