The ultimate responsibility for the errant dismissal of the criminal complaints against suspected drug lord Peter Lim and self-confessed drug kingpin Kerwin Espinosa, among others, is lodged with President Rodrigo Duterte and his alter ego, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre.
Despite the proffered objective of the “Budget Reform Act” or HB 7202 of “strengthening Congress’ power of the purse”, it has failed to excise current practices which derogate the plenary authority of the Congress to appropriate public funds.
The impeachment process mandated by the Constitution must be allowed to take its course without the judiciary and the nation being polarized.
Spectacles in the hallowed grounds of the Supreme Court where court personnel wearing red shirts and neckties demand for Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to resign exacerbate the conflict even as the call is made in the presence of a majority of the justices.
The enactment of a law on absolute divorce and dissolution of marriage is not prohibited by the constitutional tenets on marriage as a social institution and as the foundation of the family.
No less than the Commissioners of the 1986 Constitutional Commission, which drafted the 1987 Constitution, were unanimous that the Congress has the authority to pass a divorce law under the present Charter.
The eventual dismissal by the Supreme Court of the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida to oust Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno would be an opportunity for concerned justices to show that they are fair, judicious and protective of the Constitution.
