MANILA: Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said on Thursday that the Supreme Court meddles too much in political issues, reiterating he was open to amend the constitution to clip the judiciary’s power.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, an appointee of Aquino, said she had enormous respect for him and the court would only respond to political and constitutional questions through its rulings.

The president previously criticised the court’s June 30 ruling declaring his government’s enforcement of a major economic stimulus programme partly unconstitutional.

In an interview with Manila’s Bombo Radyo, Aquino complained that the Supreme Court “is meddling in everything and their meddling is making it more difficult to run the government.” “Perhaps judicial reach needs to be reviewed and limited,” he added.

The 1987 constitution — drafted while Aquino’s mother, the late democracy icon Corazon Aquino, was president after the country emerged from dictatorship — says judicial power includes the duty “to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the government.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014