"x x x.
WHATEVER can be said against it—that it is not color- blind, for instance—the United States justice system works, and works efficiently. The latest proof of this is a recent report that the US Justice Department has moved to seize $12.5 million worth of US properties belonging to Philippine scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles. US Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell is quoted as saying that the US Justice Department “will not allow the US to become a playground for the corrupt, or a place to hide and invest stolen riches.”
Earlier, the US Justice Department had seized wealth that Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia plundered in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and attempted to conceal in the US.
In addition to assisting the Philippines prosecute these cases of plunder by its citizens, the US Justice Department is showing the Philippines how a justice system works. It investigates, it prosecutes and it arrives at decisions, all within a reasonable period of time.
Why cannot the Philippine justice system function in any way approaching the efficiency of the US justice system? The Philippine Ombudsman began its case against Napoles in 2012, expanded it to include Sens. Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. in 2013. But, since then, has produced nothing.
The latest evidence of the dysfunction of our justice system is the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre, in which 57 innocent persons were murdered in cold blood. The other day, after six years of no perceptible progress in the case, Andal Ampatuan Sr., the suspected mastermind of the gruesome crime, died of natural causes, to the anger and disgust of the victims’ families and millions of fair-minded Filipinos who felt that justice has not been served.
At this point, we dissociate ourselves from the political opportunism of Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Neri J. Colmenares, who, instead of expressing appreciation for the US assistance or using this assistance as a motivation for figuring out how to improve our own justice system, is “demanding” that the proceeds of the Napoles assets be forfeited to the Philippine government “to provide medical attention and education to thousands of poor Filipinos”—harrumph! As if the US will not turn over the proceeds to us to use as we see fit, but only the insightful words of the congressman will convince it to do what is right. Contemptible. What else can you call this shameless populist posturing?
Surely, our justice system is not hopeless. Some magistrates may be hostages to the authority that appointed them, many may even be “hoodlums in robes,” but the vast majority, we dare say, are intellectually qualified and morally upright individuals, whose dedication is only “to do justice to every man.” Where the weakness lies, we suspect, is in the procedures and methods adopted by the system in the pursuit of its mandate. This weakness must be corrected.
Perhaps, it’s time that we organize a management and nonlawyer-dominated commission to take a close look at our justice system and recommend ways to make it work.
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