The Bangus Ultimatum

The way our imported judicial system works, at least in the 2-dimensional world we law students live in, is that you go to court for vindication of your rights, and if you prevail (through merit, of course) – you get these court orders, or writs. They work like scripts – bits of code that gets things done. With these nifty court orders, you can adopt a child, or change your name, or get financial support from your asshole husband.

And then there are the more serious, heavier writs. They go from way back, and are considered cornerstones of our legal tradition. Which explains for why they’re in latin, and sound like spells from Harry Potter. Surely you’ve heard of habeas corpus, which enables you to appear before a court and ask (in essence) “Hey, why am I, like, in jail?” It’s supposed to be a really big thing when you’re in a democracy – you can’t be deprived freedom without legal basis, and habeas corpus precisely enables you to examine the legality of your detention.

And then there’s certiorari. It’s just like an appeal. Only it’s really not. Judges and officials make honest mistakes. They may fail to grasp the ramifications of the evidence, or misinterpret the law. You use your vanilla-flavored appeal to question their conclusions. But what if it’s not just the conclusion that’s wrong, but the very decision-making process (or decision maker) that’s tainted. You ask for a writ of certiorari – to review and set aside capricious, whimsical, or maybe just utterly boneheaded abuses of discretion.

The Ombudsman recently decided that COMELEC officials weren’t liable for the 1.3 billion-peso clusterfuck that was the election automated project. This despite the Supreme Court’s previous findings of illegality surrounding the contract. This despite the recommendations of her own investigating officer. This despite the  her own resolution barely three months before her inexplicable flip-flop.

That’s what been keeping me up all night for the past few days. That is my outrage of the moment. That is why I have to research for and footnote a mean “cert” petition that will, hopefully, bring this crufty Ombudsman before the Supreme Court so that she can explain how things could have gone terribly terribly wrong.

Game’s on. Oh it is so on.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 23rd, 2006 at 7:34 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.