Business Circuit

“Money is certainly too dangerous an instrument to leave to the fortuitous expediency of politicians.” - Friedrich August Von Hayek, British economist

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Stay on, Chief

Chief Justice Reynato Puno once told me in a forum that it is not true he struck a deal with Malacañang in exchange for being appointed as head of the Supreme Court.

The supposed deal was that he would retire early so Malacañang can appoint its own boy.

The Chief Justice emphasized that there was no such deal. He said he will serve out his term.

After the Court upheld the executive privilege on a vote of 9-6, with Puno writing a biting dissent, his friends began to speculate that he may indeed retire early because he would not head a Court under the spell of Malacañang.

I thought that was a polite way of admitting that there was indeed a deal. But the Chief Justice denied the report. He will stay on until he retires months after the President finishes her term in 2010.

The Court needs a Chief Justice like Puno now. He cannot leave that Court simply because it succumbs to pressure. He too succumbs if he retires.

He will betray his oath if he retires. He will betray the Constitution by not defending it in the Court. Stay on, Chief. The justice system needs you in the Court.

A senior member of the Court is said to have been promised by the President that she will convince Chief Justice Puno to take early retirement.

Upon hearing this, Puno forthwith denied that he will retire before his time. Take that as gospel truth.

But then his denial left his peer completely disappointed. He lost the chance of heading the Court.

That is also good for the justice system.

To insulate the Court from suspicions that it can succumb to Malacañang like it does frequently or infrequently, no one who has a relative working co-terminus with the President should be appointed to the Highest Tribunal.

Neither should one who worked closely with the President be appointed as a reward for loyalty.

Loyalty of the Court or some or many of its members to the President is violating, in fact raping, the Constitution.

No President should have a Court that shields him/her from crime or prevents him/her from covering up the truth.

It probably was coincidental. On the day the Pope arrived in the United States, its Supreme Court affirmed that lethal injection is a proper mode for the execution of death convicts.

The timing of the ruling might have been designed as a signal to the Pope and his Church not to pressure state governors to stay execution of death convicts.

Where I sit, I find the ruling as a manifestation of sincerity of purpose in interpreting the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

Maybe, just maybe, the members of the US Supreme Court felt that the head of more than one billion Roman Catholics in the world should know the meaning of the separation of the church from the state.

If we take it to heart, we are also warned that purpose is more important than need. The Office of the President needs the cooperation of the Supreme Court.

But the members of the Court should realize that what Malacañang needs is not the purpose of the Constitution.

Some nitwit of a politician, maybe from Malacañang is trying to open a war between Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson and lawyer Pancho Villaraza who, incidentally, is not one of my best friends.

Somebody sent an email to Rene Bas, editor of Manila Times, saying that Lacson is involved in the death or murder of Bubby Dacer. Sensibly, the matter being so serious, Bas called up Villaraza. The email is canard. The address - afvillaraza@gmail.com does not belong to Villaraza.

What could be the motive for this lie? My instinct tells me that the sender wants Lacson and Villaraza locked in combat.

Lacson is a presidential candidate. Villaraza has long abandoned Malacañang, along with his lawyers.

They must fight so Villaraza may not think of helping Lacson so both of them are destroyed.

This is dirty politics. If anyone believes that Lacson is involved in the crime, sue him.

When Victor Corpus was head of the ISAFP he came with an even bigger canard that Lacson had $700 million in drug money deposited in US banks.

Lacson sued Corpus for libel. The case is not moving. How will it under the Arroyo regime?

There is another email, using the same spurious address, that claims that Lacson is linked in BW Resources scandal.

It is made to appear that Lacson had an allocation of BW shares that lined his pockets thick.

I do not think he ever had one share. However, to get to the bottom of the truth, why doesn’t anybody check with the brokerage firm of Alex de Castro. He and his wife Salud, friends of mine for four decades, should have records.

If the shares were placed in another person’s name, call in the NBI to investigate. And while at it, the NBI might also want to know who were given huge allocations by Dante Tan, founder and presumably biggest stockholder of BW Resources. The scandal was earlier investigated by lawyer Dindo delos Angeles, then president of the Philippine Stock Exchange. He should know the facts.

I think Malacañang or somebody is trying to destroy both Villaraza and Lacson.

They want them to fight. The brains behind the stupid trick does not realize that the law firm of Villaraza is bound by legal ethics from saying anything in relation to the services of its lawyers to Malacañang.

The Palace releases the Firm from that commitment if it turns out that it is manufacturing the lies against the Firm.

Two can play the game.