The Supreme Court has given assurances the judiciary has remained independent from other political branches of government.
SC spokesman Brian Hosaka stressed Wednesday the SC had always resolved cases based on merits and not from influence by authorities from co-equal branches of government—the executive and the legislative.
“The public can be assured that the Supreme Court has and will always act independently, and [will be] free from influence from the other branches of government,” Hosaka said in a statement.
“The Supreme Court is guided by the rule of law and its decisions are always based on facts, laws, and reason. The decisions of the Supreme Court are open to the public, and we encourage those concerned to read them so they can understand the reasons why they were decided that way,” Hosaka added.
The SC official made the statement after former president and House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo reportedly credited President Rodrigo Duterte for the dismissal of the plunder case against her by the Supreme Court.
“Most of all, I thank you that when you became president, you provided the atmosphere in which the court had the freedom to acquit me of the trumped up charges of my successor and your predecessor,” she said at the appreciation dinner she hosted for lawmakers last Tuesday evening, where Duterte attended.
The high court in July 2016 acquitted Arroyo of plunder, shortly after Duterte assumed Office.
“So that the court voted 11 to 4 in my favor, including half of those who were appointed by my successor,” she said.
Arroyo was arrested in October 2012—during the term of her successor, President Benigno Aquino III—on charges that she misused P366 million in intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office from 2008 to 2010.
The former president and speaker was detained at the Veterans Memorial and Medical Center for four years.