Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 12) — Should she become the next Supreme Court chief justice, SC Senior Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe said she will espouse judicial activism, which she describes as an act of going “beyond the law to consider some societal implications,” if the situation calls for it.
“If the law is vague and intent is not clear then I can be a judicial activist, meaning I could look at the societal implications of the ruling, the impacts on society. I will exercise reason and logic and fairness in my decisions,” she said Friday during her public interview for the top position in the Supreme Court.
But she said she cannot be an activist justice “if the law is clear and the intent of framers is clear.”
Bernabe said she is “very predictable” when it comes to deciding cases, explaining she bases her decision on their merits. She noted she may only be unpredictable when it comes to deciding cases that are political in nature.
Bernabe is the most senior of the applicants for the chief justice post. Other aspirants are SC Justices Alexander Gesmundo and Ramon Paul Hernando. The successful applicant will take the reins from incumbent Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta, who is set to retire a year early and will bow out of the high court on March 27, 2021. Peralta, appointed as the top magistrate in 2019, signified in December his intention to step down on his 69th birthday.
If appointed, Bernabe will serve until May 2022. She said since she may be serving for only about a year, she plans to create an advisory council composed of the five most senior justices to ensure the continuity of the plans and programs which she will pursue. Among her long-term plans is to fully implement the judiciary’s digitization program, which was “adopted in 2014 but not really pursued,” she said.
