Pope Francis just concluded his 5 day visit to the
Philippines. The pronouncements and guidance made by Pope Francis when he spoke
to both the Catholic leaders along with government leaders in the Philippines
during his visit this month is a big boost for our long running advocacy for
social justice that should benefit the poor and the vulnerable sectors in our
society and in transforming the Philippine Justice System.
Admittedly, a huge majority of our government leaders belong
to the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis who demonstrates a humble and simple
life calls for Catholics to focus on
Jesus Christ. Pope Francis is definitely one of the best advocates to stop
corruption and miscarriages of justice in the Philippines. His sensitivity to
the plight of women and especially the children like Glyzelle Iris Palomar who
asked why God allows the suffering of sinless children is very touching.
Sadly, even when Pope Francis was still here some news
reports already indicate that our government, to clear the streets where the
Pope will pass, rounded up some street children even if those children have not
committed any violation of law. Pictures and footages were published showing
that the children were placed behind
bars so that they will not be seen in the streets where the Pope will pass by.
Some government officials however claim that the same are old pictures and
footages. It will be good for the Commission on Human Rights to check on these
reports.
Just after the Pope left, I saw a picture of Father Shay
Cullen, a well known child rights advocate in the Philippines having his
picture taken where a 7 year old child, is behind bars. For those interested to
know more about this you may read the article dated January 19, 2015, in Post
Magazine entitled “Street children
detained to clear way for Pope Francis’ Manila visit.”
Purportedly, the child in the picture with Father Shay is
one of those rounded up by the police force and the social workers just before
the Pope’s arrival. Such government’s action, if true, is of course a clear violation
of the human rights of a child and Republic Act 9344, the Juvenile Justice
Welfare Act of 2006.
The act of detaining children is absolutely against the law.
Clearly the Pope is admonishing people to have “Mercy and Compassion” especially to the children. Mercy and
Compassion to the poor and vulnerable sectors of our community which Jesus
Christ commands us to do must be part of our culture.
Hopefully, the government and our society at large will now
find a lasting solution to help the poor especially the abandoned women and
their children including the street children. We are all aware that the
government has not considered this issue a matter of priority thus it is not
given the right budgetary allocation by both the Executive and Legislative
branches of our government.
The budget of the DSWD, Department of Social Welfare and
Development must be increased so that it can increase the number of its Social
Workers and Halfway Homes for the Abandoned and Street Children. Government
cannot just relegate this concern to the NGOs, Non-Government Organizations and
CBOs, Church Based Organizations, with very limited programs and resources.
Pope Francis who clearly demonstrated love of children, minced
no words in calling the attention of both religious and government leaders to
ensure service for the poor whom Jesus would like for all of us to serve.
Consistent with this, we ought to all push for the much needed counter culture
against corruption, patriarchy and impunity. We should all join hands in
promoting the culture of love, justice and peace that will respect and uphold
human rights, gender equality and rule of law in our country.
As we continue to help educate, enable and empower people to
embrace the culture of righteousness, honesty, truthfulness, love, justice and
peace that can lead to integrity of those tasked in the administration of
justice, and the entire Filipino nation, it is also vital for us to continue
with our discussion about the needed steps and measures to take in transforming
our justice system. For this particular article we shall proceed with another
key factor needed for judicial reform.
DISPOSAL OF CASES
One of the big challenges that the Philippine Judiciary is
facing is the slow disposal of cases in practically all levels of the court.
Several steps and measures have been done to respond to this challenge yet the
number of cases pending in courts continue to rise.
There are few instances when cases are ‘sensational’ that
the courts try to take steps to ensure its speedy disposition. The courts are
not able to do speedy disposition of all cases. Thus, we hear a lot of
complaints from the court users and litigants about the very slow pace in the
trial of their cases. The common complaints range from unreasonable
postponements of cases based on flimsy grounds and excuses raised by lawyers
and sometimes by the judges themselves; late opening of courts; limited time
spent by the courts in hearing of cases; dilatory tactics employed by lawyers
which many judges allow; rules of court being too technical; and generally the
weak manner of administration of justice.
During the year-end dialogue that the Transformative Justice
Institute (TJI) had with the various pillars of the criminal justice system
last December 2014, the representative who appeared for the local court
admitted that the cases in their court dockets keep increasing and they cannot
fathom how their case load of almost 2,000 can be disposed of by the same judge
now presiding the court.
As a consequence of the very slow case disposal the
representative from the BJMP, Bureau of Jail Management Penology, articulated
that there is also congestion in the city jail, which has a dehumanizing effect
on many people who are not even convicted yet of any crime as most of them are
only detention prisoners.
Court monitors articulate that the various programs like
Justice on Wheels and even the E-Subpoena System are not creating the needed
impact in ensuring speedy disposition of all cases. The Justice on Wheels
actually just go to various places and spend few days or weeks there where it
is able to dispose of cases and free a few hundred, at the most, of detention
prisoners. As pointed out, the same Justice on Wheels is merely seasonal.
On the other hand, even if subpoenas can be made thru
electronic means, if the number of cases placed in the court’s calendar is more
than fifty cases in a day, the same cannot all be heard. Cases are merely
called and reset to another date. This definitely results in additional cost
for the government because realistically, at the most, about only four cases
can be heard in a day. All the rest of the cases are just reset for the
following months and as I stressed earlier, they waste a lot of paper because
they have to type an “Order” in every case merely stating that for lack of material
time the case is reset to a future date. This is the vicious cycle happening in
many courts all over the country.
The raging question is how can this problem on case disposal
be really solved? Considering the many intervening remedies or solutions
already done by the government such as ADR, Alternative Dispute Resolution,
JDR, Judicial Dispute Resolution, Katarungang Pambarangay, Justice on Wheels,
E-Subpoena System and others how come cases continue to pile up?
The Transformative Justice Institute (TJI) has some
recommendations about this which many lawyers and other advocates highly favor
such as:
1. Implement Republic Act 8369, an 18 year old that
mandates the creation of Regular Family Courts in the Philippines. Government
in increasing the Judicial Budget must ensure that part of the increase in judicial
budget shall be used in creating the Regular Family Courts where young and
capable gender sensitive and responsive judges and court personnel should be
appointed.
The Judiciary must stop using its 5% Budget
for Gender and Development (GAD) in the operations of the temporarily
designated Family Courts. The GAD budget must be used in training all Justices,
Judges and Court personnel in all levels of the courts to be gender sensitive
and responsive.
By implementing RA 8369 and creating the
regular Family Courts the Regional Trial Courts designated as temporary Family
Courts can now function as regular courts which handle the other cases from the
courts with congested court dockets;
2. Propose Constitutional amendments that will
allow the following:
2.1
Early retirement of all Judges with
corresponding benefits so that they can be replaced with New Judges who are
young and dynamic with integrity and are not prone to corruption. Such new
judges must be determined to help government’s program in the speedy disposition
of cases. Many Judges and even court personnel favor this move, as they feel
miserable and demoralized in their present condition considering the growing
public clamor and demand for speedy disposition of cases. Many of them admit of
their inability to cope.
Along this amendment would be the appointment of Contractual Judges, to
be sourced from those who were earlier retired but with a good track record in
speedy disposition of cases. The term of the Contractual Judges shall only be
for a period of not more than five years.
Each Contractual Judge will be assigned not more than 600 old cases which
they should finish within a period of five years. On the average, that will
mean disposal of about ten cases every month or 120 cases a year for a total of
600 in 5 years.
As many Contractual Judges may be appointed according to the number of
old cases pending in a particular Judicial Region.
New cases will be raffled only to the New Judges who should be assigned
not more that 6 cases at a given time which must be disposed of within a period
of two months unless allowed extension by the Office of the Court Administrator
for just and valid reasons;
2.2
Decrease the number of cases that should be
heard in courts like Reckless Imprudence Resulting in Damage to Property by
assigning it to quasi-judicial bodies which can be under the Land Transportation Office. Likewise
cases involving violation of local ordinances providing for speed limits on
vehicles should be assigned to this quasi judicial- bodies. By doing this the
much needed form of disciplinary action for erring drivers can be better
addressed;
2.3
Create a Court of Appeals in all of the thirteen
regions in the Philippines and a Supreme Court for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The Supreme Courts in the islands shall be the final appellate court in all
cases.
The
National Supreme Court should only review cases and petitions involving the
Constitutionality of certain laws; and
2.4
The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) must be abolished
and replaced by Selection Boards from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. They should
come from the various sectors of the
community who are non-partisan and who are not members of a particular law
school fraternity or sorority.
The five person Selection Board shall come from the following Sectors:
Women, Professional, Business, Academe and Religious.
The Selection Board will take over the function of the JBC. Whenever the
National Supreme Court will have a vacancy the National Selection Board can be
constituted by drawing of lots of five names from all the members of the
Selection Board from Luzon Visayas and Mindanao.
The manner of drawing of lots shall be as follows:
One name shall be drawn each from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao to
constitute the first three members of the National Supreme Court Selection
Board. Then the last two shall be drawn from any two of the three islands which shall be done also by drawing of lots the complete mechanism of which shall be provided for by law.
This structure shall ensure participation of people from all over the
Philippines unlike the present structure which are almost always centered in
Manila.
As a matter of practice, I receive emails giving comments to this blog. I
perfectly understand that people would not like to openly comment thru this
blog but feel more comfortable by sending me their comments thru emails. So, I would expect from the undisclosed recipients of this articles whom
I email on a monthly basis to send me their comments and reactions and any
additional recommendations thru emails so that we can have a more robust recommendations for a transformed Judiciary in the
Philippines.
In John Chapter 13 verses 34 and 35 Jesus said: “A new command I give
you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By
this all persons will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Dory Cruz Avisado
1-19-2015
