The justice system in the Philippines

[Guest mongzkie]

Its been a long time when my Father in law Filed criminal cases againts me up to the prensent day all of my cases pending in baguio if you have case here Can you please Give some idea About the Justice System here at The Philippines? Thank you and by the way make your own opinion or story about this topic THANKS LIVE HAPPY

[smb]

I can say, that in my own, not so humble opinion, I don't believe that it is very easy to get justice in the Philippines, if you "don't have money." (Either you don't have the necessary funds to "grease the system" or you are unwilling to spend your hard-earned cash on seeking justice.)

On the other hand, (equally, this is only my own, not so humble opinion,) I believe that it is very easy in this country to get a miscarriage of justice - provided that you do "have money."

I refer only to my own recent case...
My second Ex wife filed totally false, malicious and damaging criminal charges against me.
In short, she was claiming that I had totally abandoned her and our two children without any financial support whatsoever - thus making me guilty of a criminal offense, under Philippine law: R.A. 9282 "The Violence Against Women and Their Children Act"

Not charges to be taken lightly and, if found guilty, punishable by imprisonment.

Well, I got myself a competent Attorney.
I laboriously listed all payments made for the past 5 years.
I went through all my junk and eventually found official bank receipts for most of the payments that I had made on a regular basis over the previous 5 years.
I even found a small notebook - full of my ex-wife's signatures for cash that I had given her and for the expenses that I had incurred on behalf of our children - and for some of the material goods that I had given them

I got fed-up of having to keep traipsing off to Calamba for preliminary hearing after preliminary hearing with the Calamba City Prosecutor - so I eventually gave my Lawyer 'power of attorney' to appear on my behalf.

After months of this, I was absolutely flabbergasted to discover that the Prosecutor, having COMPLETLY IGNORED ALL THE MATERIAL EVIDENSE that I had presented and LISTENING TO THE EVIDENSE ONF NO-ONE EXCEPT MY EX-WIFE decided that there was "probable cause" for the case to go to court!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was the point when I realised that I was NOT up against a slow and ponderous legal system... I was up against a bunch of clowns in a "kangaroo court" system.

At that point, my Attorney advised me to spend a substantial sum of money on a "Petition for Review"
I wasn't happy but the thought of spending time in a jail in the Philippines for something that I was not even guilty of, left me cold with fear. What was I to do???

The whole thing, including legitimate legal fees and "expenses" eventually cost me PHP 113,000 pesos before I finally got the case against me dismissed - with the Presiding Judge stating:


 

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
REGIONAL TRIAL COURT
4TH JUDICIAL REGION
BRANCH 36
CITY OF CALAMBA

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES
- versus - RTC CRIM CASE NO. 14604-07-C
VICTOR BRYAN (sic) ROLFE
Accused
X--------------------X

ORDER

At today's hearing for judicial determination of probable cause, the public prosecutor admitted that based on the records and the evidence submitted by the accused Victor Brian Rolfe, the accused sufficiently and adequately provided financial support to Margarita Rolfe and Michelle Rolfe.

The gesture of the Public Prosecutor to acknowledge an oversight in the filing of the complaint shows that the prosecution in its discharge of their constitutionally mandated duty adheres to the principle that no one should be charged without cause and be persecuted to the extent of the law.

WHEREFORE this case is DISMISSED

SO ORDERED

Calamba City, Laguna. 14 February 2007

Medel Arnaldo B. Belen
Presiding Judge

/mac

I wonder if the Prosecutor's little "oversight" would have been detected, had I not had sufficient funds to fight my case???


The average wage for a semi-skilled professional, (like an office worker or a primary school teacher, ) is somewhere around PHP 8,000 or PHP 10,000 pesos a month, in this country. Based on that kind of salary, PHP 113,000 pesos is about 10 or 12 month's salary !!

So, had I been a lowly office-worker, instead of a seaman, earning a good foreign currency salary, I could well have ended up in prison - instead of being able to sit here and write this...

[Guest mongzkie]

Only God Can Get Rid Of Erap Now

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It is a paradox of Filipino proportions that a President overthrown six years ago and on trial for capital plunder, nonetheless enjoys the highest public trust rating among all national leaders as Joseph Ejercito Estrada does.

It is not "mere popularity" either, for Erap is also the titular head of the political opposition whose standard bearer during the last election is now Senate President Manny Villar, said to be eyeing the Presidency in 2010. But his strong supporters also include Senators Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Noynoy Aquino (along with his mother, Corazon Aquino), Chiz Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, and such national stalwarts as former Senate President Franklin Drilon, and Senators Serge Osmena and Ernesto Maceda. And of course, he has never dipped below the two thirds level of public support and sympathy, as measured in survey after public opinion survey over the last six years, whilst all his tormentors, including Gloria Arroyo can barely scare up double digit percentages of those who trust them. His wife Loi and son Jinggoy have been elected to the Senate and almost everyone who earns his endorsement reaps victory at the polls.

This Wednesday the verdict in Erap's trial will be announced but I believe his personal political power can only grow even greater--whether he is convicted or acquitted. Here is why...

JOSEPH ESTRADA was an absolute disaster as President. He brought shame and scandal to the seat of Executive Power of Malacanan Palace, where he reportedly hosted all night drinking sessions with cronies and sycophants eager to urge all sorts of corrupt deals on him. He was impeached in November, 2000 when he was accused by Gov. Luis Chavit Singson of taking jueteng money and tobacco tax kickbacks. Erap's trial in the Philippine Senate proved to be a disaster when the Prosecution walked out and worse, the Presiding Judge joined them and aborted the Trial for no good reason whatsoever.

HILARIO G. DAVIDE Jr. was a disaster as the Presiding Judge in the impeachment trial of Joseph Estrada which was aborted when Prosecutors led by Joker Arroyo walked out and Davide did not bother trying to call them back to finish the trial. Instead he effectively sided with the Prosecution, and the anti-Erap forces when he walked out on the trial himself, went to the Edsa Shrine and swore in the Vice President, with absolutely no legal or ethical basis. It was simply that Davide himself could not accept the inevitable verdict of acquittal that the Vote on the Second Envelope actually foretold, since it became clear at that point that Erap had the numbers to definitively win acquittal on all four impeachment charges brought against him. But in order to get rid of Erap, Davide knew he could not simply continue with the Impeachment Trial since that would surely lead to Erap's acquittal. He fell in with GMA, Jaime Cardinal Sin, the Chief of Staff of the AFP and agreed to simply swear in the Vice President while a Mob threatened to take Erap out of Malacanang in a horizontal position.

What Davide did to Erap was pure and simple: a DENIAL OF DUE PROCESS. Only conviction at his impeachment trial could validly remove Erap from office in January, 2001, unless he died, was permanently incapacitated, or if he resigned. The Supreme Court ruled in March 2001 that Erap "constructively resigned." This was necessitated by the fact that it was an overt ACTION of the Supreme Court's own Chief Justice that aborted the Impeachment Trial and effected the Edsa Dos regime change that overthrew Erap's Presidency and allowed him to be turned into a suspect charged for capital plunder.

IF CONVICTED of Plunder by the Sandiganbayan Court, can former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada be granted pardon?

I don't think so, even if almost everyone, including the Palace itself wishes that Erap would accept a pardon, thus proving his guilt and finishing off his legal case. But Erap vows to appeal his case all the way to the Supreme Court. If he appeals his case immediately after a prospective guilty verdict is rendered this coming Wednesday, I don't believe a Presidential Pardon can even be validly granted, for it is of the essence of a pardon that it can only be granted after the sentence of guilt has become final and executory. An immediate appeal would mean the accused maintains his innocence and refuses to accept the Sandiganbayan's verdict as final or executory. Therefore a Pardon cannot validly be granted, for it would mean an admission of guilt and therefore contradict the appeal.

Of course, the Powers-That-Be in the Judiciary did manage to force a Constructed Resignation on him in 2001, so it would not be more absurd I suppose if they could somehow force a Pardon on him for alleged plunder. But having willingly spent these last six years in detention professing his innocence, it would be illogical for Erap to cop a pardon if convicted now, which would be tantamount to admitting guilt. By parity of reasoning, a Pardon cannot be forced upon him as that would be a violation of the right against self-incrimination, often called the Fifth Amendment, a forced confession, as it were.

Thus an appeal against a guilty verdict by the Sandiganbayan (which is equivalent to a mere Court of First Instance or perhaps a Regional Trial Court) cannot be denied him since he has maintained his innocence from the day he was charged, hoping to clear his name. Neither did Erap flight like Ferdinand Marcos, Virgilio Garcillano, and JocJoc Bolante, and he publicly rejected several immoral offers from his captors to take a Get Out of Jail Free Card as delivered at various times infamously by Nani Perez and Mike Defensor.

IF CONVICTED must Erap go to Bilibid Prison?

DILG Secretary Ronnie Puno said recently that the Palace would insist on Erap staying right where he is--in his Tanay residence, but Erap has declared that if found guilty he ought to be put in with the rest of the penal convicts of Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa. It would be a security nightmare, as Puno claimed, though I doubt it is really Erap's security he was worried about! Erap in jail would only reprise one of his many movie roles and he would become even more powerful as a martyred figure, hamming it up with the capos and presos in jail.

Whether or not he goes to Bilibid Prison if convicted of Plunder, the unavoidable fact is that Erap will surely gain even more political power as a result of the inevitable popular sympathy for his plight. No one today feels the effect of whatever plunder he might have committed with the likes of Luis Chavit Singson, whom he derided on television recently since the electorate decisively rejected his bid for the Senate (he ended up where he started out in 24th place). But a whole series of scandals, both political and economic in the Garci and ZTE cases, is engulfing the Palace at the moment and the comparison is not at all flattering for them. The all-night drinking, gambling and carousing that Erap conducted with his cronies in Malacanang Palace actually seems like mere juvenile delinquency now compared to the whole string of allegedly corrupt doings of the Arroyo administration.

Whether former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada is convicted or acquitted of Plunder this Wednesday in a much ballyhooed Sandiganbayan promulgation event and official extravaganza, it won't much affect Erap's personal circumstances and political standing, which has never actually been higher than right now. Erap is far more powerful today than he ever was as President, when he was vulnerable to a relentless scrutiny and attack by the righteous mass media, as well as legal and political proceedings like impeachment and People Power.

But today, by a variety of misguided decisions on the part of the highest officials of the land since 2001, which may be described summarily as a DENIAL OF DUE PROCESS, Joseph Estrada has ironically been put beyond the reach of the Law. He is more powerful than the law, because his tormentors are not so insane as to kill him, yet being unable to get him to leave the country to their tender mercies and go into exile, the Law must deal with him on his own terms.

Since his Resignation was actually constructed and forced on him, there is no end in coming ironies if he is convicted and then some genetically modified Pardon is constructed and forced upon him also!

IS THERE A CASE FOR ACQUITTAL?

The lawyer of President Estrada at the Impeachment Trial in 2001, the esteemable Estelito Mendoza, claims that by all the rules of Court, Erap should be acquitted because the Prosecution simply did not prove its case and he explained succinctly recently to Pia Hontiveros:

The brevity and crystal clear wit of Mendoza's explanation I find convincing in the way that a clever but straightforward mathematical proof often does for me. Of course the Sandiganbayan is not Solon of Athens who was after all a Pythagorean by religion and philosophy, and so they may not find Estelito Mendoza as convincing as I do.

[smb]

At least, former Chief Justice of the Philippines, Renato Corona was finally thrown out of office.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Renato_Corona

And that was a start.

But, so far, it is a very long way away from Justice.

Yes, it was a start. (Or it would have been, if the Filipino people were prepared to see this national disgrace through to the bitter end...) But what about the millions of dollars (and pesos - not to mention non-cash assets,) that Corona did not declare in his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth? Is he now going to pay tax on that lot? Where did he get all that money? Can he prove that even one percent of it was aquired in legally-gotten gains?

Arghhh...!! The forgiving nature of the Filipino people. "He has suffered enough by losing his job and being banned from holding public office for the rest of his life. Move on. FORGET!" There are other newer and more exciting things to worry about, than seeking justice for what the Chief Justice of the Philippines done to his country - and to the very name of the law and justic in his own country?

One of the none too small problems with that, is that there will be no real progress in the Philippines until we start to see something even remotely resembly justice in the Philippines.