Justice & foot pads

I wrote about Kinotakara, foot pads that cure arthritis, and heard from more than 300 people, I’m still hearing from at least one person a week wanting to know more about a product I wrote about in February. I wrote about the plight of an impoverished ignorant Filipino who can’t get justice, mirroring the plight of millions like him and I heard from two lawyers. Don’t get me wrong, I am profoundly grateful for these responses, especially from Vangie whom I do not know personally. She originally got in touch with me because of Kinotakara and since then I have found myself on her e-mail list. The other lawyer is a friend who has retired abroad and is kind enough to read my columns on the Net.

Vangie is what my grandmother would have called an abogada de campanilla, literally a lawyer with a bell, colloquially meaning a lawyer of stature. The retired lawyer one might call an abogado de batingaw, a joke, meaning a lawyer with a very large bell, colloquially of more stature since he is far more senior in a profession where seniority truly counts. Vangie, the first lawyer, says, "You can help Mang Pedro by referring him or his case to a public attorney at the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO). There is always one branch office or a lawyer from the PAO assigned in every area/court jurisdiction." The second lawyer says, "It’s been years since I practiced criminal law, but in my day a pauper defendant had the right to ask the court to appoint a lawyer to defend him. Have you checked to see if this is still true?"

I knew something like that was in place so when Pedro got the first notice, I sent Ana with him to show up in court. The setting of this tragedy is Calamba, Laguna, Tagalog country, and Pedro is Visayan. In spite of the many years he has lived and worked here, Pedro does not speak or understand Tagalog well. According to my former helper Ana, even Pedro’s Visayan was "from the boondocks," so we had a real communications problem. That’s why I sent Ana with him, to translate and make sure he understood and was understood.

I instructed them to ask the court for a lawyer to defend Pedro. They were told there was no such thing, that he would have to find his own lawyer. I told them it couldn’t be so and sent them back a second time to inquire where they could get free legal aid. They were told again: No free legal aid. I know better than to personally go down there and find out for myself. If I did that, they definitely would see in me the precise entity who would pay all the bills. This is why I haven’t been down there myself. I told Pedro categorically: This is your problem, you pay for it. But his employers have to lend him the money because he has nowhere to turn in this society.

I referred the problem to Tony, another of Pedro’s employers who was once the exclusive employer. Tony is from here. Apparently he couldn’t find the free lawyers either so he got Pedro the lawyer who charged a steep acceptance fee. Why? Because he assumed that Tony and not Pedro would pay. Those are the facts from this end.

Explain to me like I’m a two-year-old why the law says one thing and the local court or office or whatever institution that is that implements the law says another thing. My suspicion is that culture intervenes and prevails. When lawyers (most legislators are) de tiriring, or campanilla or batingaw write laws, they completely ignore culture. Therefore, nothing happens. Execution of the law bogs down because it is culture – "how we do things around here" is still the best definition of culture I’ve seen – that implements the law. My mother had the most appropriate words for this sorry situation. Whenever I tried to explain that I did not intend to create the havoc I managed to create, she would look at me haughtily and say, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." That should be the preface to all our laws.

Thanks for the help, lawyer friends, but here in Calamba where Pedro inquired he was told there was no free legal aid available. By the way, Pedro and Ana are fictitious names. I had a sudden flash of a clerk of court looking for complaints against Pedro. I don’t know where to go for information except through this column. A part of me suspects that people in Calamba were not feeling helpful that day. My experience here is that the locals are not helpful.

Vangie continues, "His bail bond may be reduced to 50 percent upon request of his lawyer or a lawyer de officio such as the PAO lawyer, this request must be in writing. And you can get a bail bond from a surety or insurance company for the amount of the bail, and pay premium on the same. You can request for a reduced premium from the agent who gets a hefty commission."

Thank you, Vangie. I’m reprinting this so my readers can be better informed than I was. Too late now for Pedro.

The other lawyer says, ". . . if Pedro has pleaded to a charge and it has been dismissed, it seems to me he can no longer be charged with the same offense because that would amount to double jeopardy." Wow, that sounds like a sound byte from Ally McBeal. Thing is, I don’t know if the case was dismissed. Because he was arrested, I concluded that the case was not dismissed but I do not know. I am not a lawyer. I don’t know what questions to ask or where to ask them. Here’s what makes Filipinos so interestingly ambivalent. On the one hand, if you happen to have more education and privilege, if you are an employer, you’re treated like a feudal lord. You must take care of all the needs of the people you "own." You’d think then that they would let you know what’s happening in the lives of the people you "own." Copy furnish you with documents, formally advise you so you can prepare, treat you like the feudal lord they pretend you are. (Maybe they can even return the land they reformed from you since they expect you to behave like a feudal landlord still.) Then, on a whim, they turn totally democratic. You need information? Find it yourself. By the way, we’ll do our best to withhold it from you because we resent feudal lords.

So, thank you, lawyer friends for your advice. I know you meant to help and were genuinely concerned. I would like to see the day when an ignorant Filipino can respond to a court summons and be told exactly what his rights are and what he is given under the law. I’d like to see someone there ask him if he needs legal assistance and direct him to the proper office. I’d like someone provided by the state ensure that he understands what’s happening to his life. I’d like to see him able to hold his head high because he knows he didn’t have to mortgage his life to save it. But I don’t see this happening in my lifetime because by and large we don’t care.

We respond to stories about foot pads that detoxify because we can see how they might bring relief to us, our parents, our grandparents, people we love. What do we care if 70 percent of 82 million Filipinos are ignorant? So what if they can’t get justice? What’s new? That situation has been with us forever. Now Kinotakara, foot pads that suck out your toxins, those are new. Guess what? They even work.