ILOILO CITY, Philippines?What about the ?Cory Court??

Former justice secretary and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul Gonzalez lambasted critics of the Supreme Court ruling allowing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to appoint the next chief justice.

Gonzalez, a staunch ally of the President and who is running for mayor of Iloilo City, said the high court and the President were unfairly being criticized for the ruling.

?Why are they complaining? They are hitting the President in the guise of criticizing the Supreme Court decision,? Gonzalez told the Inquirer in a telephone interview on Saturday.

Reacting to reports quoting former Commission on Elections chairman Christian Monsod who said that there is now an ?Arroyo Court that is especially accommodating to the wishes of the President,? Gonzalez said there was nothing wrong with a President appointing all members of the Supreme Court as long as it was in line with established processes and procedures.

Gonzalez pointed out that the late President Corazon Aquino had also filled the high court with her appointees after she was installed into office following the Edsa People Power I revolt that ousted strongman Ferdinand Marcos in February 1986.

?Cory asked all justices to resign and packed the court with her appointees without the benefit of recommendations from a Judicial and Bar Council like what we have now. That was worse!? Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said Aquino had offered to appoint him as an associate justice of the high court but he turned it down. He was, however, tasked by Aquino ?to go around asking the justices to tender their resignation? especially those appointed by Marcos.

He said only then Associate Justices Claudio Teehankee and Vicente Abad Santos were not asked to resign. Teehankee swore Aquino into office shortly before the Marcos family fled from Malacañang to Hawaii while Abad Santos swore into office then vice president Salvador ?Doy? Laurel.

Several associate justices who resigned were reappointed by Aquino but most were new appointees, according to Gonzalez.

Gonzalez said that after he was appointed as the Tanodbayan on April 4, 1986, he was tasked along with then justice minister Neptali Gonzales to recommend appointees as judges of lower courts.

?That was worse. In (President Arroyo's) case, there is a JBC that screens and nominates justices to be appointed to the Supreme Court. So, why are they complaining now?? Gonzalez said.

He said it was unavoidable that Supreme Court justices will become all appointees of Arroyo because she has been in office for nearly 10 years.

?But the appointment of justices was done in line with procedures due to the replacement of those who retired,? Gonzalez said.