Aiming for Chief Justice – AKADEMYANG FILIPINO

SKETCHES – Ana Marie Pamintuan (The Philippine Star)
November 28, 2018

He’s the chief justice the country hasn’t had. Will that last part of the sentence soon change into “never had”?

Antonio Carpio, who as the most senior associate justice of the Supreme Court is now the acting chief justice, looks prepared for whatever is handed to him by fate.

Carpio has been bypassed twice for the top post in the Supreme Court – first in favor of his contemporary Renato Corona (we all know how that story tragically ended), and then for the second most junior member of the SC, Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Will it be a case of third time lucky for Tony Carpio? President Duterte, after all, said that he would be respecting seniority in his SC appointments. This was to explain his appointment of Sereno’s main nemesis Teresita Leonardo-de Castro as chief justice for just over 40 days. Ignoring the seniority rule was one of the biggest beefs of the SC justices who voted to oust Sereno on the basis of a mere quo warranto petition filed by the government’s chief lawyer.

Because Carpio considered that mode of kicking out a chief justice as unconstitutional, he declined his automatic nomination as Sereno’s replacement.

But now that it’s De Castro who is being replaced following her retirement, Carpio has submitted himself for consideration by the appointing power.

Those rooting for Carpio, however, sigh that he seems bent on committing hara-kiri. Fully aware of President Duterte’s love affair with China and its leader Xi Jinping, Carpio is among those at the forefront of efforts to make Beijing respect the Philippines’ sovereign rights and maritime entitlements in the West Philippine Sea.

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When I was a reporter covering the judiciary, then chief justice Claudio Teehankee avoided journalists like the plague. He told us that any issue could reach the high tribunal and he didn’t want to be accused of bias. All SC justices in fact have to do the same thing.

Theodore Te, SC spokesman when Sereno was the chief justice, explained to us on the Cignal TV/One News show “The Chiefs” that Carpio believes the dispute in the South China Sea, already settled before the United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, is not going to the SC. So Carpio, who was part of the Philippine team that worked to secure the PCA ruling, feels free to discuss the issues surrounding the maritime dispute.

Anyway, if there is a case that may be connected to the dispute, Carpio can always inhibit himself, within the time he has left (now less than a year) in the SC.

He has already made clear that his bid to be named chief justice shouldn’t come at the expense of gagging him on the West Philippine Sea. A survey conducted by pollster Social Weather Stations Inc. indicates that he has more than 80 percent of Filipinos supporting his cause.

Those rooting for him to be named chief justice find some hope in the pronouncement of presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo that Carpio’s advocacy on the maritime dispute won’t affect his chances of appointment to the top judicial post.

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President Duterte, who seems to be playing off one world power against another, can find common cause with Carpio on other matters.

Duterte has often lambasted “oligarchs” and says he wants economic growth to be inclusive. Antonio Carpio’s positions on many issues brought before the SC have shown him to be a believer in economic liberalization, in breaking up monopolies and oligopolies and putting an end to rent-seeking.

He must have left such an indelible imprint in these advocacies that it apparently cost him the post of chief justice during the Aquino administration.

After Sereno’s selection was announced (to the horror of her senior SC peers), I asked Carpio what happened. He told me that he was at least given the courtesy of being invited to a chat by then president Noynoy Aquino.

The meeting was only to inform Carpio that he couldn’t be named chief justice because he had made too many enemies in big business and other sectors, most of whom Aquino would still have to work with as president for a few more years.

Carpio told me this without asking that the information be kept confidential. Maybe Aquino, who openly bickered with the SC and lamented “judicial overreach” throughout his presidency, ignored the seniority tradition and picked Sereno to deliberately annoy the high tribunal.

We know how several of those bypassed in favor of Sereno eventually got their revenge.

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Last Saturday, Carpio was again at it, providing new details and perspectives on the maritime dispute. He was the keynote speaker at the first general assembly of the Akademyang Filipino, an organization whose members include National Artists, National Scientists and the country’s Ramon Magsaysay Awardees.

The idea for the Akademya, whose purpose is “to help meet the country’s most crucial challenges and to build a just, prosperous, and sovereign nation,” germinated in 2016, with National Artist F. Sionil Jose working together with the late Senate president Edgardo Angara.

They hoped to set up an organization that would bring together some 100 “purposeful leaders” and achievers in the arts, sciences and professions in service to the nation.

Sionil Jose is the chair emeritus; former ombudsman and Carpio’s third cousin Conchita Carpio Morales is the chair. Tony Carpio is among the trustees together with Sen. Sonny Angara, Angel Alcala, Doris Magsaysay-Ho, Jose Dalisay Jr., Lydia Echauz, Felipe Gozon and Ramon Magsaysay Jr.

For the first general assembly, held at the University of the Philippines-Bonifacio Global City, the topic was defending the country’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea.

You’ve read the story that came out of that gathering: Carpio said the navies of the world could enforce the PCA ruling in the South China Sea.

This was to dispute Duterte’s claim that “no power on Earth” can enforce the arbitral ruling.

During the Q & A, Carpio said public awareness of the issues in the maritime dispute is growing.

Isn’t he worried that he could lose his bid for chief justice as a result of his advocacy? Carpio’s comment on the sovereignty issue may apply as well to his personal aspiration: “I’m always an optimist.”