Blame the courts

First of all, I apologize for the sparseness of posts over the last week or so. I have finals coming up, so I'm afraid I won't be able to write much for a while. However, here's one piece of news I found interesting:


I've already written several times about the bickering between the Aquino administration and the Philippine judiciary. Now, in response to allegations that not enough has been done to punish those accused of murdering journalists, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda recently stated:

Those cases already in the court, I think the pressure from the journalists should be exerted towards the judiciary and not the executive branch.

I always worry when a government official calls for "pressure" to be exerted on the judiciary, even in human rights cases. I understand Lacierda's basic point that the cases are out of the executive's hands now, but the phrasing of his response suggests some animosity remains. As political scientists, we rarely get to listen in on politicians' private conversations, so offhand comments like this are particularly noteworthy.