EDITORIAL - Injustice and impunity

This is another urgent reason for the judiciary to streamline its processes and speed up the delivery of justice. Not only is the inefficiency – tainted with corruption, according to business groups – a national embarrassment; it is turning elections into a farce that fosters impunity in criminal activities.

The system allows the wrongly accused to continue seeking elective office even while behind bars. But even such politicians should want the wheels of justice to turn faster, to establish their innocence as quickly as possible and get their life back.

Alice Guo, for one, intends to seek reelection in 2025, according to her lawyer. He says it will be the ultimate vindication for the dismissed mayor of Bamban, Tarlac as she faces indictments for multiple offenses including allegedly faking her Philippine citizenship. Perhaps even her supposed sister Shiela Guo can seek an elective post in 2025, since the people of Bamban reportedly love Alice so much – that is, if Shiela doesn’t get deported first to China.

Over in Negros Oriental, Pryde Henry Teves is running for provincial governor, despite his designation as a terrorist together with his brother, expelled congressman Arnolfo Teves Jr. Pryde is out on bail on charges of financing terrorists behind killings in the province. His brother Arnolfo is in Timor-Leste and fighting extradition over the assassination of Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo and nine others last year.

The Commission on Elections has said its role is largely ministerial so it accepts certificates of candidacy of any aspirant who has not been convicted with finality. In the case of Alice Guo, if she secures a temporary restraining order from a court stopping her dismissal as mayor by the Office of the Ombudsman and perpetual disqualification from public office, the Comelec will have to include her in the ballot for 2025. The same procedure will be followed in the case of other officials dismissed by the ombudsman, but who still want to run in next year’s elections.

Under current circumstances, it would be a miracle if these high-profile cases can be resolved with finality, all the way to the Supreme Court, before the May 2025 elections. But these cases should spur the SC, along with the Department of Justice, which supervises the prosecution service, to devise ways of speeding up the wheels of justice. Other countries can do it. Why is it impossible for the Philippines?

It is often said that justice delayed is justice denied. Injustice prevails in this country, and with it, impunity.