Farewell to Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr.

Perspective with Rowena Guanzon
Visayan Daily Star
Bacolod City, Philippines
Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Chief Justice Davide Jr.’s legacy

December 19 was Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr.’s last day in the Supreme Court, a Chief Justice whose court has been called an “activist court” by some, and short of “meddling” by others. He is not spared from political criticism because his Court upheld that the presidency of Gloria Arroyo was valid due to the resignation or abandonment by former President Joseph Estrada. He is also the only Chief Justice who had an impeachment complaint filed against him.
He served as Chief Justice since 1999, and although he may not have written many brilliant decisions, his record in the administration of justice has a prominent place in the history of the Supreme Court. In the Asian region, the Davide Court is looked upon as a good example. Proof of his leadership in this area is the recent international conference on judicial reform which was held in Manila.
Chief Justice Davide Jr. leads other Chief Justices before him in the area of gender and women’s rights. Although during his term the Supreme Court has decisions that perpetuated myths about rape and stereotyped women’s roles, the Chief Justice was quick to admit during the launch of our book, Engendering the Philippine Judiciary, that he knows that our book contains a critique of decisions, but the judiciary must be open to criticism. During our book launch on December 15 at the Manila Hotel, he said that he thanks both his friends and his detractors because they have all contributed to his journey.
The Chief Justice wrote some decisions that were trailblazing in the area of women’s rights. Among these is his dissenting opinion in People vs. Salarza (1997), where a Caucasian woman sued her boyfriend’s friend for raping her while she was asleep. The Supreme Court, through Justice Josue Bellosillo, held that there was no rape because the woman woke up during the carnal knowledge and thought that the man was her boyfriend. Chief Justice Davide Jr. dissented and wrote that what is important is that the woman must have had informed consent to the sexual intercourse, which was lacking in that case. Another is his dissenting opinion in People vs. Genosa, where the Supreme Court held that battered wife syndrome is a mitigating circumstance that lowers the penalty by two degrees but cannot acquit the accused. Chief Justice Davide Jr. is vindicated by Republic Act No. 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act, which provides that battered woman syndrome is a justifying circumstance notwithstanding that any of the elements of self defense may be lacking.
His dissenting opinion in Salarza will hopefully be the majority opinion one day, as there is an increasing number of rape of women and girls while they were drugged or drunk, or asleep. We have handled three cases of U.P. female students who were either drugged or drunk when they were raped.
Chief Justice Davide Jr. created the Committee on Gender Responsiveness of the Judiciary, as part of the reforms during his term. Gender sensitivity training of judges are continuing, although there are still many judges who are insensitive to gender and do not believe that this is indispensable to the administration of justice. Our book, Engendering the Philippine Judiciary, which will be published by the U.P. Center for Women’s Studies Foundation and the United Nations Development Fund for Women-Bangkok, aims to help raise the awareness of judges on gender by teaching them gender analyses as a tool, and to use the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in their decisions. In other jurisdictions such as India and Hongkong, the courts use the CEDAW to interpret domestic laws or to fill gaps in the law.
The Chief Justice was a supporter of the Gender Justice Awards and was the keynote speaker during the Supreme Court sponsored launch of the book. Bacolod’s Regional Trial Court Judges Edgar Garvilles and Edgardo delos Santos and their decisions which won recognition from the Gender Justice Awards are featured in the book, as well as digest of Supreme Court decisions on violence against women that will be helpful to judges, prosecutors and women’s rights advocates.
Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr. was, of course, not perfect. But in the area of gender and women’s rights, we give him more than a passing grade. The contributions to gender and women’s rights of the Davide Court will be the subject matter of another book which will be published by the U.P. Center for Women’s Studies Foundation and The Asia Foundation in March 2006.
To Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr., our fond farewell.*

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 21st, 2005 at 7:52 am and is filed under Visayan Daily Star Columns, Gender and Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.