Why crooks are not caught

Sad to say but even before these latest bribery charges hurled against the government prosecution service, it has already acquired a shady and rotten reputation. People dealing with it both in the national and local levels have so many tales of crooked, dishonest and unscrupulous acts including “double dealings” or “highest biddings” taking place in said office. But they just have to tolerate the shenanigans obviously because they can not back up their stories with enough proof or simply because they do not want to jeopardize their pending cases. Their typical reaction is to just take everything in stride and treat their frustrating experiences as one big joke by mockingly labeling government prosecutors formerly called “Fiscals” as “Fixcals”.

This unfortunate situation is definitely detrimental to our criminal justice system primarily because criminal prosecution is one of its main pillars. The entire citizenry is not sure anymore whether the suspects released and not charged in court should have been charged and held for trial and/or whether those charged and held for trial should have been released and cleared. It certainly raises serious doubts on whether criminal justice works in this country. Thus in this latest prohibited drugs case involving scions of Alabang social elite, the resolution of Prosecutor John Resado dismissing the case for lack of probable cause to charge the suspects in Court maybe upheld or set aside by DOJ Secretary Gonzalez. But whichever way Gonzalez decides, doubts already exist on the correctness and soundness of his decision.

More unfortunate still is that the entire prosecution service has been placed in a bad light when there are also many decent, honest, competent and dedicated prosecutors. To be sure, in this latest prohibited drugs case, it is so unfair that Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño should be asked to go on an indefinite leave. It is unfair because Zuño is one of the clean and honest prosecutors we still have. He does his job quietly but efficiently and effectively as shown by the many judgments of convictions his office has obtained. Indeed he should have been appointed to a higher position but because he does not kowtow to the powers that be, he just rose from the ranks after 34 long years of service relying solely on his merit and fitness. There are many more Zuños in the prosecution service who have been placed in a bad light because of this unsavory reputation.

PDEA should have been more circumspect in exposing the alleged bribery involving prosecutors. It should have gathered enough evidence first and identified the specific persons involved before going to media. In fact it should have first filed the necessary charges of bribery in the Ombudsman instead of resorting to publicity. Since it has not done so up to now, its charges of bribery may really be a psy-war tactic only employed on the prosecutors because the latter believe that it has not done its job properly and legally in this latest episode of the campaign against prohibited drugs. If PDEA’s manner of handling the bribery charges against the prosecutors is similar to the way it carries out its job in catching violators of the prohibited drugs law, then Resado’s dismissal of the complaint filed by PDEA against the Alabang suspects may really be correct.

The raging feud between DOJ and PDEA has so many adverse effects on our country. It has certainly weakened our position in the war against dangerous drugs. The drug lords must be sneering and laughing at our government agencies that could not even present a united front in this kind of dangerous war. Sowing dissension within the ranks of the government is precisely one of their tactics and the government is falling for it.

On the other hand the manner of handling and the tactics employed in this on-going feud between two government agencies have also undermined some of the well entrenched democratic principles and institutions. The Lower House of Congress has actually taken over the functions of the courts and the Ombudsman in investigating the bribery charges. It has assumed the function of evaluating testimonies of witnesses and determining their credibility. It has even replaced the well entrenched principle of presumption of innocence with the presumption of guilt. Any citizen, much more a government prosecutor like Resado certainly should not be left without any alternative except to open even his private and family life and business just to prove his innocence of mere allegations of bribery. But even more alarming in this sorry spectacle is that when Resado tried to turn the tables and also hurl charges of bribery against PDEA, his charges were immediately branded as “incredible” and this time the presumption of innocence has been apparently applied.

Granting that Resado may have committed something wrong, his ordeal looks so unfair when compared to others who have been suspected of committing more serious wrongdoings involving hundreds of millions and even billions of pesos but have been insulated and have not even been called into any of these congressional investigations where presumption of guilt is already applied as to force them to prove their innocence.

At this stage, one thing stands out and becomes clearer: our continuous disregard of the rule of law is precisely the main reason why so many crooks, grafters, drug lords and drug addicts have eluded arrest and conviction.

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