The Supreme Court of Lucio Tan

The Constitution empowers the Supreme Court of the Philippines to be the arbiter of legal disputes and controversies within its jurisdiction. As the Highest Tribunal of the land, disputes are settled with finality in this Court. After the Supreme Court, there is no other court left for recourse, except of course, if you recognize, the courts of the New People's Army or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). 


As a student of the law, I am trained to respect the voice of the Supreme Court. That when this Court speaks, it speaks with authority. Its voice is the Law.


Now, the Supreme Court seems to have an alter-ego. Its voice seems not solitary but it reverberates, albeit, in different levels or divisions.


Last October 4, the Supreme Court ruled "with finality" the case of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (Fasap) urging the Philippine Airlines (PAL) to reinstate 1,400 of its members. The case has been languishing in the Supreme Court files for more than 13 years now. 


The decision was met with utmost relief since, if you read the case, Fasap is really entitled for a reinstatement. Their dismissal was really illegal and violative of the law.


Then comes the Court's regular "amicus curiae", Estelito Mendoza, writing from his desk in Makati, citing the fact that the decision was issued by a "wrong division". It should have been the third division, not the second, a very simple technicality, which sectors find extremely unfortunate, says Senator Miriam defensor-Santiago.


For Fasap and the rest of the militating labor at PAL, it is not just unfortunate, but extremely irregular. For a very sensitive issue such as a PAL labor dispute, this is irregular and unjust. It is totally condemnable, says Labor leader Rafael Mariano. The ruling of the second division was just. Yet, the decision of the court to withdraw what it said was "final and executory" courts extreme public reaction.


It just proves that this Court favors most of Lucio Tan's companies, what with a series of court cases favoring the sickly tobacco magnate. see link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/74607/supreme-court-under-fire-over-recall).


And when one case came thru out of the Court's radar, the Highest Court which dispenses cases with finality, finally proved vulnerable to another flip-flop.


This is a shame. This just proves that our Laws are extremely ludicrous and prone to differing views and opinions.


Credit that to a highly politicized House that inks laws of very dubious natures and of an Executive that knows absolutely nothing.


Worse, we have a Supreme Court that is supposed to correct legal infirmities, again, a body that knows absolutely nothing.


The People should be the ones to correct these things. It is time to overhaul the system and replace it with the correct and right bodies.