Swift justice

In China, the son of Hong Kong movie superstar Jackie Chan was released last week after serving a six-month jail sentence on drug charges. Jaycee Chan, who was arrested in August last year, bowed deeply before and after apologizing to the public.

In South Korea, Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah, daughter of one of the country’s richest men, was also sentenced to a year in prison last week for the “nut rage” incident. An appeal, according to reports, can take a year.

Detained since Dec. 30, Cho has been stripped of her positions in the family conglomerate. She has apologized in court as well as to the public and the steward she had thrown off the Korean Air flight for serving her macadamia nuts she had not asked for, and in a bag, not a dish on Dec. 5 in New York’s JFK International Airport.

Sentenced with Cho, who appeared in court in green prison garb, were a Korean Air executive, to eight months for pressuring airline employees to lie about what happened, and a transport ministry official to six months for leaking to Korean Air information about the ministry’s probe.

Koreans, according to reports, feel Cho is a spoiled brat who got off lightly and should’ve been given the maximum 10 years for violating aviation safety rules.

In the Philippines, the fact that such fall from grace can happen at all to a billionaire, and with such speed, would be a miracle.

Cho should be glad she’s not in China, which has no qualms about imposing heavy penalties on the wealthy. Last week China executed a billionaire involved in mining, his brother and three associates for operating a crime ring engaged in arms trafficking, illegal gambling, extortion and murder. Liu Han was arrested in March 2013, shortly after Xi Jinping took over as China’s president and launched an anti-corruption campaign.

I can think of several Philippine political kingpins widely believed to be engaged in similar criminal activities, with dirty money laundered into legitimate businesses, but who are unlikely to be prosecuted, unless they are brazen enough to perpetrate something like the Maguindanao massacre (circa November 2009, not January 2015).

Many other countries have highly efficient justice systems. Filipinos aren’t lacking in brains, capability and resources. Achieving the same level of efficiency in the justice system shouldn’t prove to be Mission Impossible.

Just one celebrated case that is resolved with impressive speed and efficiency can serve as a model and inspiration, but not a single case comes to mind.

The notoriously inefficient justice system dampens economic activity and is one of the biggest factors fueling insurgencies. The speedy justice offered by outlawed armed groups is one of their best recruitment incentives.

The inability of the state to provide swift justice, aside from weak capability to keep the public safe, will also guarantee that people who commit to give up armed struggle will continue keeping weapons clandestinely.

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I’ve asked legal professionals why the wheels of Philippine justice turn so slowly.

They give common answers, starting with corruption. As in much of the bureaucracy where red tape engenders bribery, delayed justice means numerous opportunities to receive “facilitation fees.” A judge can make a fortune selling temporary restraining orders to both parties in a case, especially in business disputes involving wealthy players. Lawyers who get paid per appearance in court add to the delays.

Corruption among the so-called “hoodlums in robes” and members of the prosecution service is also rooted in a vetting system for appointments that is heavily influenced by politics and the right connections rather than merit.

Local politicians use their connections to have cronies or their cronies’ relatives appointed as judges or chief prosecutors in their turfs. The patronage is repaid through decisions by the appointee favoring the politician.

Such situations are among the biggest reasons for the failure to solve murder cases targeting journalists and rivals of local political patrons.

People who are denied justice through normal channels tend to take justice into their own hands, becoming vulnerable to recruitment by armed movements.

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Justice is also slowed down by the sheer caseload notably of the Supreme Court (SC), which was given broad powers under the 1987 Constitution.

The 1935 and 1973 Constitutions listed specific areas wherein the SC has jurisdiction. The 1987 Constitution added sweeping powers “to settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government.”

This has been taken to mean anything and everything. The SC can limit itself to cases involving “grave abuse of discretion” and exercise restraint in accepting cases, but it hasn’t – that’s the “judicial overreach” that President Aquino has been lambasting.

The current Constitution also requires the SC to resolve all matters within 24 months from date of submission. “All lower collegiate courts” are given 12 months while “all other lower courts” have three months.

New rules extending the deadlines must have been approved – although wouldn’t that require Charter change? Even celebrated cases have crawled along for two decades, with no resolution in sight, since the Constitution was ratified.

In case the Bangsamoro Basic Law, despite the Jan. 25 slaughter in Maguindanao, is passed before the elections in May 2016, the BBL is certain to face a legal challenge before the SC even before a plebiscite can be held on the creation of the Bangsamoro.

The BBL debate can be hastened along by rendering speedy justice for the 44 slain and brutalized commandos of the police Special Action Force (SAF). The Department of Justice has said that even with the peace process, criminal indictments are possible for the killers and those who harbored two terrorists.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has admitted that it was the group involved in the firefight with the SAF. Nearly three weeks after the massacre, however, we still don’t have the name of even one of the killers.

If this case moves along through the judicial system at the usual glacial pace, it is sure to affect the passage of the BBL. Delayed justice also derails the pursuit of peace.