A book for all seasons

In the mid-eighties, a visiting American professor of philosophy who lectured at the UP in Diliman was asked, "What in your opinion is the most negative aspect of Philippine life?" Without hesitation he replied, "The administration of justice."

If he were to be asked the same question today, I wager he would still give the same reply. The administration of justice is snail-paced. Investigations go on and on, ending nowhere, and the cases which have engendered the investigations of extremely grave offenses, are soon forgotten.

Police brutality (read unbearable torture) is administered to innocent people to extract "confessions" of guilt. Other innocent people languish in jail under the most inhuman conditions while certain favored criminals enjoy scandalous privileges.

In this regard, legal luminaries and esteemed columnists deem a house arrest for the former president illegal, yet the matter has been the subject of absurd debate. Further, if Mr. Estrada were to be granted his request, what would stop other prisoners from making the same appeal? Then there is the perennial charge of corruption levelled at the judges themselves – from the lowest rung of the judiciary to, yes, the highest.

In the light of all this, the latest book of Associate Justice Art Panganiban, Reforming the Judiciary, gains immediate, indeed, urgent relevance. The book is written in layman’s language; consequently, no legal training or background is necessary to comprehend or understand it. Nevertheless, the book should be of utmost interest to members of the judiciary and to lawyers for which reason I have passed my copy to the lawyer in the family, my young grandnephew Patrick V. Orosa.

Here are excerpts from the foreword of Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr. to Reforming the Judiciary:

"Presented in Justice Panganiban’s inimitable writing style, a subject that is otherwise ponderous and tedious is again rendered interesting, even entertaining, yet always informative and faithful to the facts and the history that it creates.

"I consider this book the most important to have been published in many, many years, as it describes in great detail the ‘Action Program for Judicial Reform’ which I regard as the centerpiece of my stewardship of the Supreme Court and the Judiciary.

"In a very real sense, therefore, Justice Panganiban could very well have entitled this highly consequential tome – his sixth on the High Court – as ‘Re-inventing the Judiciary’, since he has covered the entire gamut of our system of justice and governance in a manner that no one else has attempted or achieved before. His talent for infusing an eyewitness account quality into his writings and numerous speeches afford them immediacy and significance that can only come from an insider’s heart and mind."

Besides Mr. Davide’s glowing praise for the man and the book, Mr. Panganiban’s other peers admire him (and I quote) for his "clarity of thought and cleanness of prose", adding, "he is one of the most prodigious members of the distinguished court in terms of numbers of decisions authored, legal references published and numerous articles written in legal journals and various local and international publications."

All the foregoing are valid reasons for making Justice Panganiban’s book imperative reading not only for the New Year but also for all seasons because the judiciary needs reforming – at once.