If the Supreme Court, now dominated by appointees of President Gloria Arroyo, would again rule in her favor as they did with the issuance of the temporary restraining order that allowed her to try to leave for abroad last November 15 despite six complaints of plunder before the Ombudsman and an ongoing investigation of electoral sabotage by a Department of Justice-Commission on Elections panel, they would have to contend with public opinion, or more accurately, citizen outrage.

For now, the feared constitutional crisis that could have erupted with the Judiciary and the Executive branch on collision course over GMA’s fate has passed, thanks to the Comelec’s filing of a formal case for electoral sabotage with the Pasig RTC and her subsequent hospital arrest.

And while it’s good that the SC justices rejected the Arroyo petition to declare the DoJ-Comelec probe as unconstitutional, nevertheless, the people expect them to always base their decisions on the merits of each case, rather than on paying a debt of gratitude to the appointing authority.

People are understandably wary that the highest court dominated by Arroyo appointees would try to unduly favor her at every opportunity.

But it’s not just the SC whose objectivity and fairness may be in question.

The fact is that in her almost 10 years in office, Arroyo made sure that the judicial system would be under her thumb.

Let’s take the Office of the Ombudsman. She appointed Merceditas Gutierrez to the position in 2005. Gutierrez had been a classmate of her husband Mike Arroyo in law school, and she did not err in putting her in such a lofty position. No case involving the Arroyos or any of their cronies moved an inch in the Office of the Ombudsman under Gutierrez’ watch.

It was the same thing with the Sandiganbayan. Arroyo also packed it with people who kowtowed to her every wish. We have only to cite the unpopular decision of the Second Division that approved earlier this year the plea bargain of the former military comptroller Carlos Garcia, with the concurrence of Ombudsman Gutierrez. 

And everyone knows by now that the SC has 12 members appointed by Arroyo. 

The eight justices who approved the issuance of the TRO on the enforcement of the watch-list order against Arroyo were all her appointees.        

Recall that the current Chief Justice Renato Corona is a “midnight appointee” of GMA, as he was designated as such in the twilight of her administration last year. Then presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino fumed that he would not recognize Corona, and made good on his word by getting another justice to administer his oath of office as President.

Corona’s closeness to Arroyo cannot be denied, as he was her chief of staff and spokesperson when she was still a senator. He was also her first chief of staff in 2001 when she took over as President after EDSA 2.

Wonder no more, therefore, if the SC and other judicial  entities with Arroyo appointees would decide in her favor, particularly now that she has lost her immunity from suit and faces a raft of cases, from graft to poll fraud and murders and involuntary disappearance of political activists  during her term.

The bottomline is: A rogue Judiciary is the last thing we need to achieve political stability.