The Historical Impeachment of A Chief Justice in the Philippines

The impeachment trial of the Philippine’s current Supreme Court Chief Justice, Renato Corona, begins today, January 16, 2012. He will be tried before the 23-person Senate members who will sit as judges to determine whether he is guilty of the complaints imputed against him. All members of the judiciary and the legal industry are all out in monitoring how the impeachment trial will go as it marks a historical event most especially in the judiciary department of the Philippines, being the first impeachment trial against a Supreme Court’s highest ranking magistrate official.

Even law students have sparking interests over the Constitutional relevance of the issue as there are varying opinions that the Executive department stepped over the boundaries on the separation of powers in the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary departments of the Philippines. I believe this issue probably emanates from the accusations made against the allegedly influencing tactics made by President Aquino to influence his allies who are members of the House of Representatives to file an impeachment complaint against the Chief Justice. This is quite different from the impeachment made against Merceditas Guttierez, former Ombudsman which was initiated by private citizens. This move of President Aquino is probably in line with his objective of keeping the ball rolling on his anti-graft campaign. But again, the question remains whether this move had weakened the independence of the judiciary system of the Philippines?