A changing of guards at Asean Law

February 5, 2024

MANILA – In Malacañang on Feb. 6, President Marcos will induct the new officers of the Asean Law Association (ALA) Philippine Chapter (ALA Philippines) led by CJ Alexander G. Gesmundo as chair. Along with the other ALA Chapters in the region, they could have been inducted during the 14th ALA General Assembly held in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 17-22, 2023. However, CJ Gesmundo requested me to carry on as ALA Philippines chair until the end of 2023 to give him more time to follow through with the Supreme Court’s “Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations, 2022-2027.”

IN KUALA LUMPUR (KL), THE MALAYSIAN CJ and chair of ALA Malaysia, The Right Honorable Tun Tengku Maimun binti Tuan Mat, was unanimously elected president of the regional ALA for three years. Significantly, Chief Justice Maimun is the first woman to head the Malaysian judiciary, ALA Malaysia, and the regional ALA.

In his keynote during the ALA General Assembly, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim stressed the importance of the rule of law and assured ALA he would protect the independence of the judiciary. This assurance was met with thunderous applause because in parliamentary systems like Malaysia’s, the parliament is the paramount repository of sovereignty, and the judiciary is viewed as an inferior branch of government.

In contrast, in our tripartite system, the judiciary—particularly the Supreme Court—is the constitutional equal of the President and the Congress. In fact, our Supreme Court is often regarded as “the Most Powerful Court in the World” because it is the only tribunal mandated by the country’s Constitution with the duty, not just the power, to nullify acts of Congress and of the President that are done “with grave abuse of