Instant gratification

Some quarters are complaining that the two chambers of Congress are going overboard in conducting investigations, saying these are no longer in aid of legislation.

There are, in truth, many cringe-worthy moments, for both the probers and those they are grilling. Last week some folks disgusted with the proceedings wondered if the grilling rooms could be equipped with exploding microphones, similar to the exploding pagers and walkie-talkies deployed against Hezbollah.

And yet we can see a high public tolerance for the congressional probes, including the scrutiny of the proposed budgets of certain agencies.

This is because the inquiries – which those being grilled describe as inquisitions – provide what Filipinos cannot get from the criminal justice system: speedy if not instant gratification in the search for truth, swift penalties for misbehavior, and the sight of the once high and mighty being cut down to size.

Congress also has oversight powers, which the lawmakers are invoking. The House of Representatives in particular is mandated to scrutinize the National Expenditure Program submitted annually by the executive in crafting the national budget or General Appropriations Act.

Even if it takes political bickering to expose fund misuse by certain officials, people are willing to take whatever can be served up by the times.

A witness, resource person or whatever word is used to describe anyone in the congressional hot seat won’t talk or submit documents? The person is cited in contempt, ordered arrested and detained (or hunted down). An agency head refuses to provide details about the proposed budget of the office? The agency gets the budget slashed by 60 percent.

Persons being grilled are asked point-blank about supposed romantic dalliances. Some of the probers are disgustingly salacious in their questioning, but it’s like watching a soap opera, playing out live.

If we wait for Philippine justice to take its normal course, it would take a generation before the complete picture in a controversy emerges and the culprits go to prison. Even when sufficient evidence establishes guilt beyond reasonable doubt, our justice system is malleable, heavily influenced by politics and even by the religious mafia and big business.

The Sandiganbayan can’t even issue a clear ruling, for example, that will compel Bong Revilla to return P124.5 million plundered from his pork barrel. This was way back in December 2018.

Now Revilla is back as senator, with his reelection campaign posters plastered on electric lampposts. Several other 2025 hopefuls have done the same. The Commission on Elections has been rendered inutile in stopping premature campaigning. But shouldn’t these shameless candidates be penalized at least for littering and damage to property?

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Even after conviction, our judicial system allows certain criminals to roam free on bail, all the way to final judgment by the Supreme Court – a process that could take two decades. By that time, the convict would have already left the country. By that time, either the convict or the complainant could already be dead.

Just look at the case of former police Lt. Col. Rafael Dumlao III. He was granted bail and later cleared by Judge Eda Dizon of the Angeles City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 60 of the kidnapping and murder of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo right inside Camp Crame, headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

It was one of the early cases of gross abuses in Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs. Jee and his househelp were taken from his home in Angeles City in October 2016 by members of the PNP’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG), who later demanded P8 million in ransom from his wife.

The wife paid P5 million but never saw her husband again. Jee was strangled to death by two AIDG cops right inside his own SUV as it was parked near the AIDG headquarters. The body was taken to a funeral parlor where he was cremated and the ashes flushed down the toilet.

Last July, the SC announced that the Court of Appeals had reversed the acquittal. The SC said the RTC’s trial was “a sham and an apparent mockery of the judicial process such that Dumlao’s acquittal was a foregone conclusion and in total disregard of the evidence... a conclusion that clearly contradicted the testimonies of witnesses...” The RTC, the SC noted, “gravely abused its discretion by gross misapprehension of facts.”

The appellate court sentenced Dumlao to life in prison without eligibility for parole, and ordered him to pay a total of P575,000 in damages for kidnapping with homicide, kidnapping and serious illegal detention of Jee’s househelp Marisa Morquicho, and carnapping of the Korean’s SUV.

Now, if only Dumlao can still be found. He can still appeal his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court. Considering the gravity of his sentence, it’s not farfetched to believe that he has taken a fast yacht to Malaysia; Philippine authorities don’t monitor such “non-common carriers.”

Or maybe Dumlao also has friends in high places in Timor-Leste and can seek asylum in Dili.

We’re still waiting to find out if Judge Eva Dizon faced any sanctions from the SC in depriving Jee Ick-joo and Marisa Morquicho of justice.

South Korea is renowned for its highly efficient justice system. What might the Koreans think of ours?

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Even the Supreme Court has not been free of controversies.

If a convict is well-connected, the conviction could be overturned with finality by the Supreme Court. Or the SC could simply sit on the case until the convict dies, without ever spending a minute behind bars.

All SC members, whether upon regular retirement or during their incumbency, should be prohibited from accepting any appointment (except promotion to chief justice) from a sitting president, to foster impartiality and independence of the high tribunal. The SC is self-policing and need not even wait for legislation to do this. But this could be like wishing for legislators to enact laws against dynasties and racketeering, or laws lifting bank secrecy rules or regulating campaign finance.

Just look at how several of the SC bunch that ousted Ma. Lourdes Sereno ASAP as chief justice through quo warranto proceedings were richly rewarded by Rodrigo Duterte during his presidency.

As we have seen, every pillar of the criminal justice system all the way to corrections can be compromised by corruption, politics and inefficiency.

The congressional probes are the closest we can get to the truth and possibly swift justice, flawed as the process can be.