Reforms, in increments

We probably have Dirty Rody to thank for this: yesterday a program was launched to implement reforms that will improve the administration of justice, promote respect for human rights and prevent impunity.

It’s called GoJust, for Governance in Justice. With funding of about P1 billion from the European Union and Spain, the three-year GoJust will involve reforms in the justice sector, particularly in improving coordination among the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice and Department of the Interior and Local Government.

As laid out at the launching, GoJust probably won’t attract a lot of attention from a public that has heard too many promises of improvements in the administration of justice.

The country head of an international agency involved in aid told me their group believes the problems besetting the Philippine justice sector are so intractable they think providing funding for judicial reforms is a waste.

As I have previously noted, frustration with the slow, inefficient and corrupted criminal justice system is a major reason for the strong public support for President Duterte’s brand of swift but brutal justice.

This frustration has been percolating for many years now, bringing to power Dirty Harry types such as Sen. Panfilo Lacson and even “The Butcher,” retired Army general Jovito Palparan. Duterte was genuinely popular as mayor of Davao City, despite criticism of his human rights record.

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There have been efforts for some time now to improve the administration of justice.

The other day I ran into retired Supreme Court Justice Adolf Azcuna, now chancellor of the SC’s Philippine Judicial Academy, which as the name implies handles training programs for magistrates.

He told me that judicial reforms have been ongoing for over a decade now. Among the reforms is the mandatory referral of cases for court-annexed mediation before trial. Only if mediation fails does trial start.

Azcuna said mediation has had a 62 percent success rate in resolving court cases quickly.

The SC also launched “Justice on Wheels” or mobile courtrooms in 2004. Among other things, the program looks into the status of court cases in which defendants have been in jail longer than the penalty they might receive if found guilty. Thousands of inmates have been freed under the program, Azcuna said.

More could be freed, but the judiciary has only eight “Justice on Wheels” units deployed nationwide.

There lies one of the problems in the judicial system: limited funds.

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The judiciary has consistently been allocated only less than one percent of the annual national budget, Azcuna pointed out. This amounts to about P17 billion this year. The judiciary augments this through its self-generated funds – court filing fees that amount to about P6 billion annually.

There are enough courtrooms, he said, but to make ends meet, the judiciary must keep about 20 percent of trial courts vacant. The country currently has 2,600 judges and about 110 justices in the Court of Tax Appeals, Sandiganbayan, Court of Appeals and the SC.

Azcuna said there are enough funds for training members of the judiciary. The training includes effective writing of decisions and gender sensitivity. Under GoJust, the training will include sessions on international humanitarian law, human rights and women empowerment.

Perhaps they can include precise writing, so that legal documents will be shorn of gobbledygook that wastes paper and confuses non-lawyers.

Computerization of court records has also been ongoing for some time along with efforts to improve case management.

Azcuna notes that Philippine court rules are patterned after the American one. But the US has a jury system, and applying similar procedures in the Philippines slows down adjudication.

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Increasing the budget of the judiciary requires political support, which is probably why its share in the annual government appropriation has remained low.

Noynoy Aquino openly expressed his frustration with the judiciary, notably the SC, when he was in power. The first president to have his congressional allies impeach a chief justice railed against “judicial overreach,” which he said tied the hands of the executive.

That “overreach” is made possible by the Constitution, and it will require an amendment to delete or modify that specific provision in the Charter. President Duterte, who is supporting a constitutional rewrite, may include this in his Cha-cha agenda.

Du30 doesn’t seem to be a big fan of the judiciary, a co-equal branch that has the power to stop his orders and reverse his policies. But being a former prosecutor, he must also understand the funding needs of the justice sector and can urge his congressional allies to increase the courts’ annual appropriation.

Another judicial reform requires legislation: empowering courts to allow community service in lieu of a prison sentence for misdemeanors. At present, Azcuna said, this is allowed only for offenders below 18 years old, for misdemeanors that carry a prison term of about 30 days.

With the glacial pace of Philippine justice, there are many such offenders aged 18 and older who are “overstaying” in jails nationwide, with their time in detention far exceeding the prison term they might be meted out in case of conviction.

This is a grave injustice, and naturally those who are hit are the impoverished who can’t afford topnotch lawyers to keep them from ever setting foot in a jail cell.

Azcuna prefers to look on the bright side, emphasizing that reforms have been ongoing to improve the administration of Philippine justice.

The public just needs to be better informed about the changes, he said. Yesterday’s GoJust was the latest installment in the reforms.

Problems will be tackled “one by one,” Azcuna reassured me. “This can’t be done overnight.”