‘… despite many of my friends doing their utmost best on the bench, arguing as members of the Bar, or administering the Justice system from different levels of the Executive department – justice
is not a strong suit in the Philippines.’
HAPPY birthday to a good friend, Atty. Ma Gabriela “Gaby” Roldan-Concepcion, the legal eagle on GMA-7’s Unang Hirit and the better half of Atty Danilo L. Concepcion. The immediate past FLOTUP (First Lady of the UP), she turns 30 today (I’m being a gentleman!).
As one of those whose lives she has touched deeply being one of those real friends to whom you can say anything and be told what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear, I wish her more fulfilling years ahead being a loving wife and mother and daughter and sister and aunt to her immediate family – and a dear friend to those blessed to have known her.
One thing that welded Gaby’s and my life in part was shared years (and friends and experiences) in law school, and it is all about law and our justice system that my thoughts focus on today. Growing up, I had idealistic fantasies about becoming a lawyer and a trailblazing one at that but those are long gone. Reality (including not-so-good grades at law school) caught up. And reality can be harsh.
“I can kill someone and not go to jail. My driver will go to jail for me.”
In America, saying that or some version of it can get the activists and radicals all riled up or, as in the case of Donald Trump, can get you elected President twice; but in the Philippines, we laugh it off because it is true. That was a reality check for me when I heard that from my esteemed boss, Enrique Zobel, during one of our many long discussions about our beloved Philippines and why it is a blessed and cursed country at the same time.
Indeed, if we will be honest – and despite many of my friends doing their utmost best on the bench, arguing as members of the Bar, or administering the Justice system from different levels of the Executive department – justice is not a strong suit in the Philippines. That fanatical followers of former President Duterte do not cry for Justice and demand that he be brought home and tried here only makes me snicker. Anyone who demands this is not after Justice.
Think about it. Let’s name the biggest names in politics and business who have been in the slammer and been there for a good long time. A congressman from Dipolog? A mayor from Calauan? A former governor of Batangas? A former chief of staff of a Senate President?
Medium fry, if you ask me. And many of them were sent to prison after they had stepped down from positions of power.
Then there are the more political cases, which have almost always led to a swift acquittal, sometimes with only house arrest or hospital arrest to boot. We can call this “neck-brace justice” but it is a form of justice reserved for the very elite of our political class.
A senator who was found innocent of plunder charges but was asked politely by the highest court of the land to return hundreds of millions of pesos has yet to do so. No consequences for the defiance? Reminds me of a joke about a bank robber who was found not guilty by a court of the crimes alleged; upon hearing the verdict he turns to his lawyer and asks, “Does that mean I can keep the money?”
Let’s also admit it: when worse comes to worst a politician or even a preacher would rather rot in a Philippine jail than in an ICC cell or one in America. Why? Because he or she will not rot here. He will have special privileges. Special food. Special accommodations. And once in a while, he will have to return to his cell when there’s a “random” inspection by the media.
Also, we have seen it many, many times in the past: when a President wants someone “crucified,” he gets his way. Only when that President steps down does the crucified have a chance at being vindicated. But why when you have the same set of facts? What changed?
The flip side is when someone rich or powerful is entangled in some legal – especially criminal – affair, the wheels of justice grind ever so slowly.
That’s justice?
If we are honest with ourselves, our justice system remains far from the ideal “blindfolded Lady Justice carrying a balanced scale on one hand and a sword on the other.” And it has been this way for some time now and is bound to remain this way for some time more. Our justice system simply reflects who we are as a people – deferential to those in power, unwilling to speak up lest we anger someone powerful, and firm in believing that “God will be the ultimate avenger for the injustice.”
That’s the justice system in the Philippines.
