Will a piece of paper assuage the distrust of the Filipino people in the Philippine judiciary?
Admitting that the credibility of the Court of Appeals had suffered due to the Meralco-related multimillion bribery controversy, justices of the Court of Appeals the other day signed a “covenant” in which they committed to “repair the damage caused” by the controversy.
The justices admitted that “the reputation of the judiciary as an institution had been badly tarnished". They vowed: "We shall prove our detractors wrong, we shall show them we are not the kind of magistrates we are now perceived to be”.
Among the provisions in the covenant are:
• Creation of a one-stop-shop, which will handle the filing of cases, payment of docket fees, follow up of cases, among others;
• Electronic raffling of cases;
• Revision of the Internal Rules of the Court of Appeals;
• Designation of an Ombudsman, a retired Supreme Court Justice, for the Court of Appeals; and
• Case-load reduction.
As if a pending court case is like a routine government contract, the justices opined that “the one-stop-stop intended to reduce the irregularities by minimizing the number of agencies that a litigant would have to go to in filing and following up a case”.
As if machines alone generate public trust, they opined that “the raffling of cases will become electronic to make sure that there will be no more manipulation in assigning cases to justices”.
As if technical rules are the fountainhead of true justice, they promised that “the Internal Rules of the Court of Appeals was being studied and proposed amendments were being submitted to the committee, headed by Associate Justice Edgardo Cruz, to study the revisions”.
They assured that public that “the Ombudsman would be a retired Supreme Court associate justice who would serve as the repository of complaints from the public regarding the procedures that were being adopted by the court”.
The question is why limit the same only to the Court of Appeals? What about the Sandiganbayan, the Court of Tax Appeals, and the lower courts per region? Why not apply the Ombudsman experiment throughout the judicial regions of the country?
The Chief Justice R. Puno, with his usual spiritual flavor, stated that “the ‘touching’ covenant could be achieved through moral renewal”, that the "covenant is most touchy especially your pledge that together we shall arise, overcome and emerge victorious, so is your invocation of God's grace, your promise to move forward, duly strengthened and willed by the lacerations or from the lacerations of your struggle".
The problem with mankind, Filipinos or otherwise, is that in times of trouble they invoke God as their refuge even with respect to events and issues which are not of His own making.
Lowest ebb. That is the descriptive term used by the Chief Justice: "Indeed your covenant is correct in the perception that the recent turn of events has plunged the credibility of this court to its lowest ebb”. And, with a flair for emotional drama, he added: “The fall of the court has taken place and this we all grieve from our hearts".
Moral renewal, yes. But are written technical rules of procedures, computers, and infrastructures enough to achieve it? Do justices and lawyers live the precepts of moral enlightenment or is their livelihood ruled by greed and pride, form and externalities, and hypocrisy and popularity? That is why, I listen to the following words of the Chief Justice with a grain of salt: "I cannot but concur with you that we need moral renewal in this struggle to cleanse the judiciary. It is but right that the first component of our covenant is moral enhancement. This is a recognition that our legal universe revolves around the sun of morality".
Alright, Mr. Justices. Let’s get down to hard and ethical work. Less talk, please. Produce results. Then, we will believe your promise that you will “dispense justice with honor, independence, impartiality and integrity; to be subservient only to the truth; to give our utmost in everything that we do; to continue doing good; and to hold ourselves accountable to the Supreme Judge so that our Court may be a haven of fairness and righteousness.”
And, please, do not abuse the name of God, the Almighty, the Supreme Judge, and His other titles the next time you face scandalous issues caused by your own weaknesses, pride, corruption, greed and hypocrisy.
Atty. Manuel J. Laserna Jr.
September 16, 2008