Many judges and prosecutors are now carrying guns and taking part in practical-shooting competitions to protect themselves from people who may resent certain decisions they hand down.<\/p>\n
Guns cannot protect judges and prosecutors; handing a fair and just decision can.<\/p>\n
A litigant will accept the decision of a prosecutor to file his case in court or drop it, as well as a judge\u2019s verdict even if it is contrary to his interest if he knows it is fair and just.<\/p>\n
A losing litigant will accept the verdict because he knows that the wheels of justice turned the right way.<\/p>\n
But if he knows that the prosecutor or judge was influenced by money or other considerations in making his\/her decision, he might entertain ideas \u201ccontrary to law\u201d to quote legalese.<\/p>\n
In my years as a columnist\u00a0 writing mostly about crime and corruption, I\u2019ve found that in most cases, what was behind the killing of a judge was a decision considered unfair and unjust by a litigant.<\/p>\n
* \u00a0* \u00a0*<\/p>\n
Why are there so many sympathizers and supporters of the New People\u2019s Army (NPA)?<\/p>\n
Because the wheels of justice not only ground exceedingly slow for many complainants, but also were unfair decisions.<\/p>\n
Many aggrieved citizens in remote areas of the country don\u2019t go to the regular courts for redress, but to the NPA which exacts swift and unorthodox but fair justice.<\/p>\n
Can you blame a poor farmer, for example, whose daughter was raped and killed by abusive soldiers or policemen, for seeking redress from the NPA instead of from the courts?<\/p>\n
Can you blame the same farmer for giving aid and comfort to an enemy of the state who was attentive and sympathetic to him when he had a problem?<\/p>\n
* \u00a0* \u00a0*<\/p>\n
In many parts of the country, complainants don\u2019t go to the\u00a0 courts because they find the cards stacked against them: long and tedious hearings, constant postponements of the trial, absentee judges assigned to hear their cases, a new judge taking over a long trial and money running out.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, they agree to an out-of-court settlement with the people who brought about their misery.<\/p>\n
The money that they receive from the settlement is used to buy a gun or to hire an assassin.<\/p>\n
The score is settled, no thanks to the justice system.<\/p>\n
* \u00a0* \u00a0*<\/p>\n
When I was a police reporter in the martial law years, I covered the Metrocom Intelligence and Security Group (MISG).<\/p>\n
I sometimes accompanied MISG agents when they arrested prosecutors\u2014then called fiscals\u2014who demanded money from litigants.<\/p>\n
I recall one Manila fiscal who not only tried to extort money from a litigant but also wanted to \u201cborrow\u201d the litigant\u2019s wife for one night.<\/p>\n
He was arrested by MISG agents in an entrapment operation.<\/p>\n
But the wayward fiscal was able to wriggle his way out of the extortion case; he even became a judge later on.<\/p>\n
It seems things have not changed much since the martial law years.<\/p>\n
* \u00a0* \u00a0*<\/p>\n
Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III texted me to clarify what was featured last Saturday in this space:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ohara kidnapping case is now out of the hands of the fact-finding panel, which I headed. Our report was endorsed to Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, who formed a three-man investigating panel to conduct the formal preliminary investigation. There is no vacillation on my part and we stand by our findings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many people hope the case is filed in court soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many judges and prosecutors are now carrying guns and taking part in practical-shooting competitions to protect themselves from people who may resent certain decisions they hand down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4081,1266],"tags":[901,91],"byline":[127],"source":[206078],"column":[128],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n