SHORT AND BITTER
*Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on the appointment of a new Chief Justice

President Rodrigo Duterte's appointment of the one who will become the shortest-serving Chief Justice in the country's history is absolutely short-sighted. It fell terribly short on many fronts: short on integrity, short on vision and short on courage. President Duterte just took the shortest and surest path to keeping the Supreme Court under his control.

I call on the public to exercise extra vigilance in these extremely challenging times. In particular, the people should closely guard Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s sham electoral protest and the case regarding the country's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court. While the new Chief Justice's term will be the shortest, it could also be long enough to cause further damage to our already battered democratic institutions.

Far from being short and sweet, the term of the new Chief Justice may well be short and bitter.