Justice for Ozone victims, 18 years after
It has been said, albeit we cannot just agree, that the souls of the 162 victims of that much tragic Ozone Disco fire in 1996 can now rest in peace. Justice has been supposedly served with the conviction of a number of officials from Quezon City building and permit departments, along with the owners and managers of that ill-fated entertainment establishment along Quezon Avenue.
As a former court interpreter in Cebu City court and now a professor of law in some University law schools in Metro Manila, I feel sad and even appalled, if you will, contemplating on how the wheels of justice in this country could grind too slowly. In any language and by any stretch of imagination, one could not really understand how and why does it take that long for the victims' families to wait.
With due respect, we beg to disagree that justice has already been served. The convicted felons still have a lot of procedural remedies, like a motion for reconsideration, appeals, petition for review and an array of endless remedial options that can only prolong the agonies of parents who lost their sons and daughters who were just celebrating their graduation in that fateful March of 1996. If it took the trial court no less than 18 years to complete the requirements of due process at the trial stage, the series of appeals and reviews may take another 20 or more years to finish. By that time, nobody but nobody could still recall what was it all about. Twenty years from now, all the victims' parents and even some of the convicted accused shall have already gone to the great beyond.
We are afraid that the trial of the infamous massacre allegedly perpetrated by the Ampatuans may also take 20 years, and the appeals thereafter, if they are not acquitted, may also take even longer. With hundreds of witnesses to testify on direct examination by fiscals and private prosecutors, and also on cross examinations by a host of defense lawyers, it may even take forever to finish the presentation of evidence by the prosecution. Knowing well that the burden of proof lies on the prosecutors, there is a need to confront the hundreds of witnesses with thousands of affidavits, police reports, police blotters and other documents. Then the defense will take over to present its own documents and witnesses. The long and winded processes can devastate the weaker persons and deplete their financial resources.
It is not uncommon to hear of many criminal and civil litigations to last for years if not decades. Even a simple labor case of illegal dismissal would take more than twenty years, all the way from the labor arbiter to the Highest Court. There is no sense of urgency. There is no concern for the victims neither due consideration for the families of both the perpetrators and the offended parties. Nobody is pushing the courts to hurry up. Courts usually take their own time, following their own pace and not minding the grave and far-reaching implications of a protracted trial and litigation to both the prosecution and both parties would stand to suffer.
The case of the Ozone Inferno was the worst fire disaster in our history, having terminated the lives of no less than 162 Filipinos, who just celebrated their graduation. Young and innocent boys and girls perished in the building that the city safety engineers certified as safe. After 18 years, the court found the city building official liable along with the owners of that establishment. The officials of the many courts and agencies that had something to do with the approval of the building plans should be kicked out from government. And those who delay the case should be executed by lethal injection.
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