EDITORIAL - Glacial pace

It took six years before Joseph Estrada was convicted of plunder and then swiftly pardoned by his successor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Now Arroyo herself is being held without bail for electoral sabotage and is facing a separate case for graft in connection with the aborted national broadband network deal with ZTE Corp.

Yesterday at the Sandiganbayan, Arroyo pleaded not guilty to graft together with her husband and former elections chief Benjamin Abalos. The arraignment of another co-accused, former transportation and communications secretary Leandro Mendoza, who signed the NBN deal in China in the presence of Arroyo, was reset because he was still recuperating from a recent stroke.

Arroyo arrived at the anti-graft court yesterday wearing a neck brace, with therapeutic tape on her leg. She said she was suffering from shingles, a painful viral illness. How long will this trial last? Many of its details have already been dissected in a congressional investigation. Will the nation wait six years, as in Estrada’s case, before a final ruling is handed down?

The Philippine justice system is notorious for its glacial pace. The slowness can constitute an injustice in itself, especially for the victims and those who are wrongly accused. Estrada could consider himself lucky; other cases in this country have dragged on for more than two decades, with only the lawyers benefiting from the protracted litigation.

Why is it impossible to speed up the judicial process? In Hong Kong, former Ilocos Sur Rep. Ronald Singson was arrested after being found in possession of 6.87 grams of cocaine and two tablets of Valium, tried, sentenced to 18 months in prison, and released earlier on good behavior – all within 16 months.

The Philippine judicial system is a long way from that kind of efficiency. If even a fraction of that efficiency can be achieved in this country, it will be a major improvement for the thousands of litigants who are waiting for justice, and even the accused who are waiting for a final verdict on their fate.