The snail pace of justice in the Philippines

MANILA
What’s frustrating to the average Filipino citizen like me is the unreliability of the meting of justice in our country.
Cases take forever to resolve. And when they are resolved, they’re often dismissed in favor of the sued culprit.
Prosecutors and the police make a big hoohah about apprehending suspects and throwing the book at them. The news is all over the place, and pronouncements of expected court victories are regaled upon the people as if they’re a sure thing.
And then they’re forgotten, especially if something as juicy or more controversial happens along. That new scandal gets its share of media space and a new frenzy transpires to further confuse the common person.
The underachieving Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the post-martial law outfit created to go after Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and their cohorts for allegedly absconding with a lot of the people’s money, has a lousy track record of wins in court. There have been victories, but they’re the exception. It’s as if the charges were expressly designed to be thrown out by the courts.
The Ombudsman, particularly in the not-too-distant past, has had its controversial decisions or compromises with supposedly erring officials. For example, a government prosecutor made a deal with retired Gen. Carlos Garcia, erstwhile comptroller of the armed forces, who’s been charged with pocketing millions of pesos of soldiers’ money.
Citing alleged weakness in the evidence against the multimillionaire general, the case’s prosecutor approved a deal to charge Garcia with lesser crimes, thus ensuring lighter punishment.
(The US government arrested Garcia’s wife and sons for bringing into the United States large amounts of undeclared dollars. It’s a consolation that the said prosecutor has been dismissed from government.)
Cases, big and small, are often delayed in the country’s courts, the parties involved waiting years before any resolution is reached. This is particularly painful for the aggrieved parties because their initial loss and pain are doubled as their case trudges along the path of slow justice.
Defense lawyers are adept at delaying cases for their clients, buying them time to wish for a more hospitable environment in which their client(s) get a more favorable ruling.
For the lawyers, court cases are often chess matches on who can influence the courtroom players. This even becomes a contest among the lawyers for bragging rights over who got to the prosecutor, the judge or witnesses first.
Meantime, the people who sued are made to cool their heels until a resolution is reached. This can be several years. The other side, the accused, also floats in limbo as his or her case is heard. For both, the waiting time is hell.
Inadequate staffing among prosecutorial bodies and daunting caseloads cause the delays in the progress of cases. Not only is the number of prosecutors small, the quality of the government’s lawyers is often questionable. Smart defense lawyers run circles around the poorly trained and often underpaid government lawyers.
The long wait for a verdict adds to the ordeal of those who end up with the short end of justice. Particularly poor people who have to sell property in order to pursue their cases.
The plodding pace of cases often gets ignored because the cases are not exposed to the glare of publicity. Aggrieved parties often have to make noises in the media or get influential persons to take the cudgels for them just to get the government’s or the people’s attention. Only then can they get someone to act on their cases, if at all.
(The Supreme Court, which administers the whole judiciary, is aware of the many problems afflicting the dispensing of fair justice and news reports say that measures are being put in place to speed up court proceedings, most particularly in the Maguindanao massacre trials where 58 people were gunned down and buried. Good thing witnesses led police to the burial site.)
Filipino culture affects what happens in all aspects of the nation’s life. Dishonesty, unscrupulousness and corruption are at play when it comes to the handling of serious matters, especially if they involve life or wealth. Our system of justice is often pliable and susceptible to being bent to suit the needs or interests of the powerful and moneyed. The poor and unconnected often take the brunt of the injustice of the system.
As the nation plods along the path toward a truly modern society, things such as these that affect the lives and fortunes of many must be looked at in order to bring justice equally to all. By truly modern society one means that justice is enjoyed by all, that the fruits of the people’s collective labor are shared by all, and that the perks and privileges of full citizenship are bestowed upon all.
Without such equality, full nationhood and full citizenship are but elusive notions and unreachable goals.