GOOD GOVERNANCE is the solemn promise of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III. Transparency and respect for access to information could enable it; the rule of law, or the prosecution of cases built on evidence before the courts, could assure it endures.
SIX MONTHS AGO, the PCIJ filed a 19-page pleading with the Supreme Court requesting copies of the statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) and personal data sheets (PDS) of the 15 justices of the high tribunal. The pleading caps four years of a testy tug-o-war for copies of the justices’ SALNs between the PCIJ and the high court, the last bulwark of democracy and the arbiter of constitutional questions in the land.