Many undesirable shades of justice

Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno is appealing for more funds to reform the judiciary, stating that the budget appropriated to the Justice department is inadequate. This pronouncement came after she refused to comment on the President’s remark that the judiciary was guilty of too much meddling of political issues.

We will focus on the first sentence. We reserve judgment on the second. So here goes.

No mistaking, the judiciary needs reforming. And after international and local watchdogs have once again called the country’s attention to its even slower pace of judicial action in recent months, mostly with regards criminal offenses, perhaps an overhaul is really what is needed.

Starting point

Where does one start, though? Perhaps, it is better to start with where we want to end. So, here are a few things on the bucket list, not necessarily in your order of importance.

From a layman’s point of view, Filipinos would want to see a justice system that speedily gives a verdict on cases, not one that drags for years, even decades in really big cases.

We’d like a fair system too. When we say fair, it’s a decision by the court that leaves very little doubt as to the need to elevate it to a higher court. And if it’s elevated to the higher court, there’s enough reason to not accept the case.

This is related to the next wish: if a court deems a case is no longer worth its time and effort (and taxpayers’ money), it should rule so – immediately. In the same breath, if the court feels it does not have the competency to rule on the case (for technical cases like cybercrimes or corporate securities squabbles), it should have the decency to recommend a more competent colleague to hear it.

I’d like more lay people – especially those who are poor – to be knowledgeable about the justice system, to be able to know what their rights are, what they should and can do, and not to feel terrorized and burdened by judicial proceedings.

There’s more, but in consideration of this column’s space limitations, here’s the last one: It would be really nice if Filipinos would once again (incidentally, has there ever been a time?) put their whole-hearted trust in the judiciary – in lawyers, judges, arbiters, justices, even the Chief Justice.

What should be done then?

Given the above desires, it’s not be surprising if you agree with some observers that the Philippine judicial system needs a total radical overhaul. Of course, realistically speaking, this is something that cannot happen since such a move would just lead to chaos.

Then perhaps, laddered reform would be more up to the tune, and it should be something that is introduced in measured but deliberate steps. If the Chief Justice firmly believes that reforms are needed, then she should make herself clear just how much should be done, and more importantly, what should be done.

For starters, let’s agree on a truly meaningful reform program for the judiciary, and find the funds to make this happen. More importantly, the justice department should be transparent and accountable in ensuring that changes do happen.

What happened to APJR?

Incidentally, whatever happened to the reform programs introduced by the Chief Justice’s predecessors – one that promised a number of important changes to the judiciary, and one that Juan dela Cruz had to partially pay for on top of a foreign funding component?

The reform document covering a program of action for six years, from 2001 to 2006, zeroed in on six areas: judicial systems and procedures, institutions development, human resource development, reform support systems, institutional integrity development, and access to justice by the poor.

More widely known as the APJR (for Action Program for Judicial Reform), in the judicial circles, some P4.5 billion had been appropriated and spent – which ironically, did not seem to reflect any improvement. If the public pulse were to be considered, opinion would say that judicial management has even deteriorated.

Thus, when Chief Justice Sereno hints that we should do a Part 2, perhaps, it would be better to air what happened to previous programs, where it failed and why the need for

more reforms. Then, let’s gather the widest network of stakeholder support and action, and implement reforms in doses that can be easily managed and measured.

People’s court

Or then again, perhaps, focusing on reforming the formal judicial system is not the best route for now. Everyone might be better off reforming the local government’s barangay justice system, and strengthening it to make it truly a people’s court.

One of the more recent additions, but in a more “informal manner” to the justice system, is the setting up of barangay-level arbitration, or in legalese, the Katarungang Pambarangay Law. This is largely under the eye of the Kapitan Barangay, whether he or she has any lawyering background.

Surprisingly, it has been successful in keeping many new cases from entering the formal judicial system, and has significantly helped in keeping the numbers of cases from further clogging the volume of cases in the court dockets.

But it’s not the perfect system that it was envisioned, although it has already demonstrated the potential reach and good that can come from further improving and steeping it at the local community level.

One of the best results that had been noted with the practice of KP is the growing awareness and empowerment of more Filipinos of their rights under the judicial system.

There are of course still imperfections, especially when the Kapitan is not a disinterested party in the complaint, an occurrence that’s not improbable given the closely knit structure of families within a barangay, and especially if the barangay is a particularly small one.

Scope for improvement

Still, there’s a lot of scope for much improvement. While the KP is accountable to the Department of Interior and Local Government, not the justice system, changes could be introduced to improve work relationships between the local government and the justice department.

One of the biggest complaints in the service of barangay justice is the inadequacy of law knowledge, and thus, one of the suggestions being pushed is the mandatory service of new lawyers in barangays. Sure, there’s a cost to all these, but perchance, it would be more worth doing.

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