To evoke debate among the readers, I am reproducing below the full text of my recent letter (Feb. 4, 2008) to the chief justice and the court administrator on the issue of court security and how best to solve it.
LAS PINAS CITY BAR ASSOCIATION .
Unit 15, Star Arcade, C.V. Starr Avenue
Philamlife Village, Las Pinas City 1743, Philippines
Tel/Fax: 8725443, 8742539
Email: lcmlaw@gmail.com,
Website: http://groups.msn.com/laspinascitybarassociation
February 4, 2008
Fax
For:
Hon. REYNATO PUNO
Chief Justice
Supreme Court
Manila
- and-
The Court Administrator
Supreme Court
Manila
Re ; COURTS SECURITY
Mabuhay:
The Bar is deeply bothered by repeated murders inside the halls of justice, especially in Metro Manila. Last year a fellow Las Pinas City trial lawyer was murdered inside Branch 199 of the Regional Trial Court of our city. Last week a former Mindanao mayor was murdered inside a Regional Trial Court of Manila. Many trial judges nationwide have been murdered for the past five years in the course of their work.
Such killings, like a cancer, dangerously destroy the rule of law and the administration of justice in our country. They aggravate the poor image of our legal system, which is already suffering from painful criticisms by local and foreign Media, rightly or wrongly, for alleged weaknesses, ineptness, lack of independence, politicization, and corruption.
The security seminars and firearms/target shooting trainings being conducted by the Supreme Court for trial judges and selected court personnel are not enough to solve the gravity of the problem. The required solution should be institutional and systems-oriented.
In this regard, we respectfully recommend the formation by the Supreme Court of a JUDICIAL ARMED SECURITY COMMAND (JASC) under its full control and supervision (not under the Philippine National Police or the Armed forces of The Philippines).
With due respect, it is useless and inadvisable on the part of the Supreme Court to rely on the local police and military units to secure the halls of justice in the country and to preserve the independence of the courts.
Like the Bangko Sentral ng PIlipinas, the Supreme Court should have its own national judicial armed security command to protect the justice system, which is its primary constitutional responsibility.
The funds for the proposed command should be sourced from the annual budgets of the National Government starting with the 2009 Supreme Court budget (not from increased docket and filing fees, which now heavily penalize the poor and middle-income litigants).
It is time for the Supreme Court to give flesh to the constitutional doctrine of judicial (and financial) independence.
The current Judicial Development Fund (JDF) collections are sorely insufficient for the purpose. It cannot even satisfy the meager employee benefits of the judicial workers, whose weekly protests (Black Fridays) are going on.
We suggest that you create a technical planning committee to study the idea of forming an internal Judicial Armed Security Command, for the sake of the rule of law and the administration of justice, the last hopes and bulwarks of the drowning Philippine Democracy.
Have a blessed, enlightened and liberated day. Thank you.
Sincerely.
Atty. MANUEL J. LASERNA JR.
Founder, LPBA, 2001
Board Consultant, LPBA, 2007-08
Director and Vice Pres.,
IBP PPLM Chapter, 1995-2007
