Piece meal justice

Thou shalt not ration justice" is a commandment "if we are to keep democracy", US federal judge Learned Hand wrote before his death in 1961

Here, “21 percent of trials take 2 to 5 years to finish, and 13 percent take more than 5 years,” acting Supreme Court chief justice Antonio Carpio told a Central Luzon convention of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. “There has to be a sea of change… Judicial reform is simply too important to fail”, he said.

Carpio pitched his address to an audience beyond IBP: a nation scrambling, to close the gap, left by the impeachment of it’s 23rd chief justice. The Senate fired Renato Corona by a 20-to-3 vote. It nailed the “Capo” for stashing unreported dollars while fiddling with his Statement of Assets and Liabilities.

The unsaid context was decisions, by the Corona court, that rationed justice. Crammed with justices, handpicked by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Corona majority served as bouncers for GMA’s interests, claim critics. They include President Benigno Aquino III.

The Arroyo-majority stitched a legal fig leaf for “midnight appointment” of Corona, papered over Rep. Dato Arroyo’s jerry-mandering in Camarines, then rammed through a temporary restraining order that would have allow Arroyo to flee. Now in hospital detenton, GMA denies charges of plunder and election sabotage.

Serial skewed decisions, by the Arroyo justices eroded the Court’s moral high ground. Among others, these included repeated flip-flopping of 16 towns into cities to paralysis on the PAL flight attendants and stewards case. It murmured amen as Eduardo Cojuangco pocketed 16.2 million in San Miguel Corp. shares, funded by coco farmers levies… “the biggest joke to hit the century”, snapped then Justice Carpio Morales.

Carpio’s program jump starts the stalled Judiciary Reform program initiated by Chief Justice Hilario Davide. These include (a) case decongestion, (b) integrity and independence of judges, (c) compensation of judges, court administration, and training. (d) Tansparency and accountability. “Clean-house” measures, instituted day after impeachment, underpin this road map for the future.

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” counseled Justice William O. Douglas, who served longest (almost 37 years) in the US Supreme Court. On his first day as acting chief justice, Carpio prodded once reluctant justices to direct judges: Disclose SALNs “as mandated by the Constitution and the law.”

It helped that Carpio opened his SALN long before the Corona conviction. “The Supreme Court has done this as part of the lessons learned from the recent impeachment trial”, he said, ”Leaders of the Judiciary must lead by example”.

Post on the Court’s website, what were once kept hush-hush, Carpio directed. At the click of a computer mouse, you can surf today what former Senator Rene Saguisag and researchers were repeatedly denied access to: reports on the Judiciary Development Fund and Special Allowance for Judges, plus those by the Commission on Audit.

“This is really a no‐brainer since all these are public documents,” Carpio explained. “This is part of the new transparency and accountability policy”.

Quit shillly-shallying. Move decisively into the digital age. Adopt a computerized case management system, as demonstrated by the Court of Appeals “widely acknowledged worldwide as a success”. By end of 2012, Presiding Justice Andres Reyes foresees the CMS system will ensure that all cases are decided 12 months from end of trial.

If the CA can do it, why not the Supreme Court? In fact, CMS for trial courts is being pilot‐tested in all Quezon City trial courts. If successful, the trial court CMS will be deployed nationwide in 2013.

Simplify, simplify, simplify. Streamline trial procedures, patterned after four existing special rules in corporate controversies, environmental issues and intellectual property rights.

“Internet connection for all courthouses is now a necessity. Access to the Supreme Court’s ELibrary will put at the fingertips of all judges nationwide all the jurisprudence and laws they need in writing decisions. Every judge and justice will be provided with a USB 3G wireless thumb‐drive…

Filter cases through mediation. “Out of 209,165 civil cases mediated as of May 2012, the success rate was 64 %. And out of 23,979 civil cases placed under judicial dispute resolution as of May 2012, the success rate was 40%. Judicial dispute resolution is a second sieve.. It sifted 78% of all civil cases filed with first and second level courts.

Criminal cases account for four out of every five pending cases. There is a severe lack of prosecutors and public defenders. About 26 percent of courts here lack judges. Ideally, the vacancy rate should be less than 5 percent ( In the U.S, vacancy in federal district courts is 10 percent. “And they’re already talking of a judicial crisis”.)

In Manila, the average caseload is 242 cases per judge. In next door Taguig, it is 1,161 cases per judge. “Clearly, there is a need to re-engineer the distribution of courts in relation to population. This needs legislation. ’.

The attentive reader will l find it worthwhile going through the full text of Carpio’s address. Surf the Net for “sc.judiciary.gov.ph/ jcarpio.php. This column’s 5,700-character--space cap can only skim highlights:

Liberty is best ensured by ending the rationing of justice. “The spirit of liberty lies in the hearts of men and women;” Justice Learned Hand said in a 1944 Central Park address. “When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.*

( Email: juan_mercado77@yahoo.com )

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