moral courage

While we often lament on the many mis-adventures of our government so it is such a welcome relief that we have a Chief Justice and Supreme Court who use their moral compass as much as their intellect most especially in a period in our history when we need them to be as such.

this is a quote from Chief Justice Panganiban's concurring Opinion with regard to PP1017 which I found to eloquently express our collective sentiment. The Chief Justice wrote:

"Some of those who drafted PP 1017 may be testing the outer limits of presidential prerogatives and the perseverance of this Court in safeguarding the peopleÂ’s constitutionally enshrined liberty. They are playing with fire, and unless prudently restrained, they may one day wittingly or unwittingly burn down the country. History will never forget, much less forgive, this Court if it allows such misadventure and refuses to strike down abuse at its inception. Worse, our people will surely condemn the misuse of legal hocus pocus to justify this trifling with constitutional sanctities.

And even for those who deeply care for the President, it is timely and wise for this Court to set down the parameters of power and to make known, politely but firmly, its dogged determination to perform its constitutional duty at all times and against all odds.

Perhaps this country would never have had to experience the wrenching pain of dictatorship; and a past President would not have fallen into the precipice of authoritarianism, if the Supreme Court then had the moral courage to remind him steadfastly of his mortality and the inevitable historical damnation of despots and tyrants. Let not this Court fall into that same rut."

As for the Supreme Court's decision with regard to PP1017--- while it is sad that the petitioners according to the SC had failed to prove there was no basis for PP1017, as a whole it is a relief that the important issues were struck down and that the government of gloria macapagal-arroyo was restrained from their misadventure and that our Supreme Court had the moral courage to act independently.