Aquino says if elected he will not take oath as Philippine president before new chief justice

Aquino: No oath before Philippine chief justice

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ president-apparent Benigno Aquino III refused Friday to take an oath of office before the new chief justice, alleging impropriety in the appointment by the outgoing president in the dying days of her term.

The move would be a symbolic first blow against the scandal-tainted President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo if Aquino takes office.

The son of Philippine democracy icons questioned Arroyo’s appointment on Wednesday of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was her chief of staff and spokesman. Aquino cited constitutional prohibitions on appointments two months before the end of a president’s term, but a majority of Supreme Court judges ruled in March the two-month ban does not apply to the position of chief justice.

“I do not want my own oath-taking, if I do it, to be before a questioned entity,” he told reporters in his northern home province of Tarlac.

He said instead he may be sworn in by a village chief in Tarlac on June 30 at the end of Arroyo’s term.

Aquino has 41.85 percent of Monday’s vote with results from 90 percent of precincts counted by Friday afternoon, a government-accredited election watchdog said. His closest rival, ousted President Joseph Estrada, had 26.47 percent.

Aquino appealed to Arroyo to reconsider her decision and called on her “to recognize the new government’s right to appoint the next chief justice.” He warned other judges on the bench he would not recognize the move, adding they risked being ousted from the bench for supporting it.

Presidential spokeswoman Charito Planas warned the refusal of the incoming president to recognize the chief justice appointed by Arroyo could lead to a constitutional crisis.

“All of us, including the president, must follow and respect the law,” Planas said. “Let’s give respect to a co-equal office for a smooth management of the country.”

Aquino has said if elected he would form a commission to investigate allegations of corruption and other wrongdoing during Arroyo’s nine-year rule.

He said Arroyo made the chief justice appointment because “she probably assumes she’ll be facing a whole ton of cases, a whole lot of them, (and) she is looking for a sympathetic or friendly faces from those who will (try) her case.”

Arroyo was accused of vote-rigging in 2004 and implicated in several scandals that led to coup attempts and moves to impeach her. She denies any wrongdoing and ran for a House seat in Monday’s vote, winning with more than 90 percent of the vote.

Aquino’s promise to wage war against rampant corruption that has plagued the Philippines has raised hopes, especially among the young who made up almost half the voters.

A 50-year-old lawmaker, Aquino campaigned largely on a family name and promised to follow the legacy of his parents, who are regarded as heroes in the country’s democratic struggle against the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

It was only after his mother, former President Corazon Aquino, died of cancer last August that he decided to run, spurred by the massive outpouring of national grief for the leader who helped oust Marcos in 1986. She had inherited the mantle of her husband, Benigno Aquino Jr., an opposition senator gunned down by soldiers at Manila’s airport in 1983 upon return from U.S. exile to challenge Marcos.