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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Is there a justice reform plan?

Strategic Perspective
Is there a justice reform plan?
By René B. Azurin

Regardless of the real motivation of President Aquino for seeking the ouster of Chief Justice Corona, it will be good for the country if such ouster actually leads to much-needed improvements in the way justice is administered in this badly governed country.The question we need to ask, however, is: IsMr. Corona’s removal indeed part of a deliberate plan for reforming our largely ineffectual criminal justice system? That question is legitimate because there is no indication that this is so.

Beyond the long-in-coming-and-then-rushed prosecution of ex-president Arroyo and the ongoing impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona, Mr. Aquino’s government has not, thus far, actually exerted any perceivable efforts in the particular direction of reform in our criminal justice system. So, having heard the Aquino administration banner the eradication of corruption and the overhauling of the justice system as the foundations of its program for governing the country, it is perfectly reasonable forthe public to expect that, over 18 months into Mr. Aquino’s term, the outlines (at least) of a well-thought-out plan for carrying such a program out would have emerged.

If removing Mr. Corona is one of the elements of such a plan, one has to presume that the chief justice who Mr. Aquino intends to replace Mr. Corona with will be more aggressive -- and more determined -- in implementing the reforms urgently needed now in our Judiciary. This should mean that the incoming chief justice -- whether Justice Carpio or Justice Sereno -- will be more forceful in addressing what the “Action Program for Judicial Reform” -- initiated by ex-chief justice Davide -- has identified as the critical issues that need to be addressed in the judicial system, to wit: case congestion and delay, budget deficiencies, politicized system of judicial appointments, lack of judicial autonomy, human resource inadequacies, dysfunctional administrative structure and operating systems, insufficient public information and collaboration with society, perceived corruption in the judiciary, and limited access to justice by the poor. According to the APJR, the goal to be realized should be a judiciary that is “fair, accessible and efficient, independent and self-governed.”

But judicial reform is only one of the elements necessary to bring about reform in our criminal justice system. Other, just as important, key elements involve law enforcement (the prevention and solution of crimes) and correction (the punishment and rehabilitation of criminals). Presumably, because both of these areas are directly under the control of Mr. Aquino and his executive branch, reform actions therein would -- over 18 months into this administration’s assumption of office -- be well under way. There is no evidence that this is the case.

In the law enforcement area, for example, there does not appear to have been any programs implemented so far to improve the training of law enforcement officials in order to improve their crime detection andcontrol skills or to seriously upgrade the equipment and other resources essential for present-day crime fighters. Neither have there been any initiatives to amend the laws or prevailing rules so as to “professionalize” the police service and to eliminate rampant political intervention in criminal investigations or in the appointment of police officials. Neither have there been any attempts to strengthen the recruitment and selection of law enforcement officials, to rationalize the compensation of such officials, and to streamline and whip into shape the Philippine National Police and other law enforcement agencies and reorganize them into more effective crime-fighting units.

In the corrections area, there has been no visible interest shown thus far by this administration in addressing the well-publicized problems of inadequate correctional facilities, overly congested jails, slow disposition of cases leading to prolonged incarceration of detainees, inhumane treatment of prisoners, and the utter lack of suitable programs for rehabilitating and reintegrating released offenders back into society.

One cannot help but ask, if no initiatives, programs, or actions are being undertaken to introduce reforms in the specific areas that Mr. Aquino said will be the focus of his administration (corruption and justice), then what, pray tell, has this government been doing?

In a recent forum on culture and the state, the distinguished historian José Arcilla, S.J.,argued that the state’s role in developing culture must be to promote justice, since “no state can exist without justice.” And that justice, according to Fr. Arcilla, must be understood not merely as “commutative justice” but as “the way things ought to be” [emphasis his]. We, as a society, are quite a-ways from where we ought to be.

Fr. Arcilla noted how, over a century ago, national hero José Rizal was already railing against the “eviland injustice around me” and about how Filipinos -- like Sisa in “Noli Me Tangere” -- had already resigned themselves to “their painful situation” and “no longer dared to hope that things could be better”. Well, Mr. Aquino was elected president because some Filipinos dared to hope that things could get better. Those Filipinos may still be holding on to some whispers of hope. For how much longer, though, one has to wonder.

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