The Philippine Supreme Court aided Ferdinand Marcos by laying the legal scaffolding for his martial law regime. The Court refused to check the President’s power by deferring to the Executive Branch in case of emergencies. When Marcos was ousted in 1986, Filipinos adopted a Constitution that gave the Judiciary the power to review the factual bases of emergency actions. The Supreme Court, however, refuses to use this power. The Court refuses to check the President because of institutional competence constraints, believing that the only issues that can be resolved by the judiciary are those that can be done on the basis of reasoned argument. When courts go beyond this role, they endanger their legitimacy as legal institutions because they act beyond their area of competence. The Philippine case shows that a constitutional directive that empowers the judiciary did not override deference to the executive branch in times of political trauma. As a result of this deference the Supreme Court has dismantled the safeguards in the post-Marcos constitution.
Judicial Review and Emergencies in Post-Marcos Philippines