HOUSE Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez is on the warpath against the judiciary, when the last thing the country needs now is for these two branches of government to be at each other’s throats while the President is busy fighting another war in Marawi. The judiciary is not just the Supreme Court, but refers to the collective court system that includes all lower courts. Thus, a Court of Appeals judge is not necessarily lower than the entire Congress, in the same way that a House committee is not necessarily lower than the Supreme Court en banc. The Speaker and the entire House must take a lesson from the Senate experience in Neri v. Senate, a decision penned by Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro. Far from providing blanket powers to Congress to cite for contempt and detain anyone, the ruling defined the limits of such powers.

Source: Manila Times June 23, 2017 15:00 UTC