Learning the hard way EDITORIAL 12/08/2010

Learning the hard way

EDITORIAL

Click to enlarge

12/08/2010

Foiled again. But with good reason.

Noynoy Aquino’s Executive Order 1, which created the Truth Commission, has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (SC) majority. That striking down by the high court was generally expected, as Noynoy’s EO 1 was fairly defective in that the body he created had absolutely no powers to even summon — under the pain of contempt — any witnesses, or even the accused.

The better avenue for Noynoy was to get a law crafted by Congress creating the so-called Truth Commission where such powers can be granted by the legislative body.

At that time, Noynoy could have had it passed, considering that he was just starting his presidency, and he had the majority of the Congress behind him.

But that congressional action may not even have survived the constitutionality test, mainly because there were more issues raised by the political opposition in its petition before the high court, which issues posed strong constitutional arguments such as having the focus of the commission solely on the past president’s scandals... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101208com1.html