EDITORIAL - Chilling effect

In a land notorious for snail-paced justice, Malolos Regional Trial Court Judge Wilfredo Nieves earned a rare accolade in 2012 from Malacañang. The praise was for Nieves’ quick resolution of the case against Raymond Dominguez.

The brothers Raymond and Roger Dominguez led a notorious carjacking ring operating in Metro Manila and several provinces in Luzon. Nieves sentenced Raymond to imprisonment of up to 30 years after 16 months of trial – a record speed in Philippine adjudication.

Malacañang was elated. That kind of efficient justice, however, can earn a judge dangerous enemies in this country. Police are now looking at the Dominguez conviction together with other cases Nieves handled for leads on the group responsible for his fatal ambush last Wednesday afternoon as he drove home from work along MacArthur Highway in Malolos City.

Probers are focusing particularly on the Dominguez gang, which was also linked to the brutal executions of car dealers Venson Evangelista and Emerson Lozano. Two key witnesses in the Evangelista murder case were also killed in separate incidents in Cavite and Malolos in 2012. Two companions of one of the witnesses were also murdered.

Every effort must be made to catch Nieves’ killers. His murder comes on the heels of the assassination of another judge, Erwin Alaba of the Baler Regional Trial Court in Aurora last September. The killers have not been caught. As in the murders of journalists and left-leaning activists, failure to solve deadly attacks on magistrates can breed impunity.

The nation’s justice system is weak enough without parties in criminal cases trying to influence court decisions in the worst way: by threatening magistrates with harm. No one must believe he can get away with murdering members of the judiciary. Assassinations of judges and justices inevitably have a chilling effect, especially if the murderers are never caught.