Malacañang said the justice system in the Philippines needed to be corrected so no Filipino would have to suffer life behind bars for a long time only to be found not guilty of the crimes he was accused of.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo made the statement after Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 221 found three Ampatuan brothers and 25 others accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt for the death of 57 persons in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.
Panelo said that while the rule of law prevailed with the promulgation of the decision in the Maguindanao massacre case, those who were acquitted could have lived productive lives if the process did not take 10 years to complete.
“The Palace notes that there are serious flaws in our justice system long-existing and must be rectified if we are to be fealty to the rule of law and due process as enshrined in our Constitution,” he said Saturday.
“An analysis of the court’s judgment shows that ten years of what could have been productive lives of 56 acquitted accused have been wasted in incarceration, and necessarily their families have since become dysfunctional, with their wives and their children bearing the brunt of the stigma and the humiliation that come with it, scarring them for the rest of their lives,” he added.
The Palace official said that while prosecutors should be commended for their efforts of closing the case, there was still injustice for those who ended up in jail but were eventually acquitted.
“This is an injustice that cannot be countenanced nor continue. It must not find print ever again in the pages of our history as a nation,” Panelo said.
Panelo, a former counsel of Andal Ampatuan Jr., said a major cause of the “aberration” was the filing of charges before the court against any accused even if the evidence presented before the investigating public prosecutor “cannot sustain a conviction” of an accused of a crime to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The hasty and heedless filing of an information is due either to the faulty appreciation of evidence by – or the fear of – the investigating prosecutor to be subjected to an administrative sanction or get a reprisal from the complainant if the case is dismissed at the preliminary investigation stage,” he said.
“The resultant tragedy is the deprivation of the liberty of the persons adjudged as innocent by the court, as what happened. It is not an isolated case, there are hundreds of similar pending cases obtaining in other courts,” he added.
Panelo, however, said the Philippine justice system should remain impartial without regard to the social and political status of the accused, and uninfluenced by the torrent of adverse people’s judgment.
“The government, forever unaffected and unmoved by the infectious winds of public opinion, must pursue and protect this ideal,” he said.
He added that the promulgation and the tedious process should serve as a lesson to everyone so no lives would be put to waste.
“Aside from throwing away productive years of those accused who were pronounced not guilty, government resources, including man-hours and effort, have gone to waste,” Panelo said.
“This is one lesson we must all learn lest we repeat the same grievous error at the cost of liberty and honor of the innocents,” he added.
Earlier, Panelo said President Duterte welcomed the decision because the rule of law prevailed.
“He welcomes that decision. What is important to this President being a lawyer is that the rule of law will always prevail. We cannot be ruled by a lynch mob,” he said.
Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said the long process was necessary as it showed that the country valued the right of everyone to due process.
“This is justice. It was admittedly a slow process but we have to go through it as warranted by our democratic system,” he said. (Argyll Cyrus Geducos)
