Rule of law as institutional substrate — contract enforcement, judicial independence, equal treatment before the law. Upstream of most other axes.
Independence of the judiciary from executive and legislative encroachment. Specifically captures court-packing, selective prosecution, judicial reshuffles.
House of Representatives impeached President Joseph Estrada on 13 November 2000 over jueteng-payoff allegations (Ilocos Sur Gov Chavit Singson testified to PHP 545m monthly payoffs plus PHP 130m tobacco-excise kickback). Senate impeachment trial opened 7 December 2000 under Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. On 16 January 2001 11-10 Senate vote against opening "second envelope" of Jose Velarde bank account records triggered prosecution walkout, trial collapse. Four-day protest (15-20 January 2001) mobilised ~1m people at EDSA Shrine. Cabinet and AFP chief General Angelo Reyes withdrew support 19-20 January 2001. Supreme Court declared presidency vacant 20 January 2001 on constructive-resignation grounds; VP Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sworn in 11:27am 20 January. Supreme Court Estrada v. Desierto decision 2 March 2001 upheld succession.
Per invariant 3, reforms are scored by what they did on each channel-separated axis, not by the party that enacted them. This fingerprint is how the policy-match engine finds historical analogues.
Explicit links are curated by the author. Inferred links are hypotheses in the library that test the same axes this policy moved — the framework's answer to "what does the data say about a policy like this?".
Ranked by axis-fingerprint overlap with this policy. Direction match bolded — those are the closest historical analogues. Shape of the match is what drives policy-outcome comparison, not the country or party label.