I have always maintained that the solution to the problem of court delays is to revert back to the inquisitorial system, which we had during the Spanish times.

I was moved by an urgent appeal for help, which I received on my Facebook Messenger. A seasonal supermarket worker in Baliwag, Bulacan was caught drinking juice by management. He must have been charged, and rightfully so, with the felony of qualified theft and brought forthwith to the police station where he spent two nights in detention. Normally, individuals caught in the act of the commission of a crime are apprehended and brought to an inquest proceeding so that they may be charged in court. It becomes a felony when police authorities fail to file charges against anyone in their custody within a maximum of 36 hours.

But the point is the crime charged was drinking juice in a supermarket. Yes, that is criminal. Yes, that is ground to terminate the employee and perhaps to makes him pay a fine. But two days of jail time for a tetra pack juice? That to me is not proportional to the crime charged. Liberty, after all, enjoys a preferred position together with freedom of expression, in the hierarchy of rights. In the same manner that those who steal loaves of bread or fruits in a plantation because of poverty should be shown mercy by the law, so should this particular supermarket worker.

In any case, it’s a month from Christmas. Can’t the supermarket owner share the spirit of giving? I think there are ample ways to show the other employees that management will not sanction theft of commodities. I recognize that. But in the season of love and giving, can’t the owners of this Baliwag supermarket chain find it in their hearts to forgive this young offender? Merry Christmas to the owner of this supermarket chain in Baliwag, Bulacan.

With instances such as these, I now wonder how many of us actually realize the true meaning of the season.

As we near the yuletide season, so do we remember the 58 victims of the gruesome Ampatuan massacre case. It’s been 10 years since the worse massacre involving journalists and, to date, the victims continue to be doubly victimized by the very slow pace of justice in this country.

The presiding judge hearing the case, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes, asked and was granted an additional 30 days or until 20 December to promulgate her decision on the case. When asked to comment on the extension, I said that the victims have waited 10 years for justice. Surely, they can wait a further 30 days.

But the point is justice delayed after 10 long years is simply unacceptable in any civilized society. Victims have the right to a speedy adequate remedy and to reparations. Speedy means, literally, as soon as possible pursuant to the adage of “Justice delayed is justice denied.” Reparations include all acts that should restore the fate of the victims to the status quo ante, or their physical, emotional and financial positions before the crime happened. This means compensation on the part of the state to extinguish all the consequences of the illegal act. This should include monetary compensation to help the families deal with their loss, including a sum for foregone income and an amount for moral damages for the grief that they should suffer. It should also include psychosocial assistance to help restore the mental condition of the victims prior to the happening of the crime.

The state has been in utter breach of these obligations. The measly sum of P10,000 each victim was paid to them by the Department of Justice under the victims’ compensation program.

One my biggest regrets is that the bill which I sponsored in Congress granting more realistic compensation to all victims of human rights violations did not see the light of day. Hopefully, I will have yet another chance to shepherd this bill into law.

In any case, we owe it to the victims of the Ampatuan massacre to ensure systemic steps to prevent similar delays in the future. I have always maintained that the solution to the problem of court delays is to revert back to the inquisitorial system, which we had during the Spanish times. Under this system, the parties agree on the issues and it is the judges themselves who will require counsels to submit the relevant evidence to prove facts in issue. Under our existing adversarial system, lawyers have to offer evidence in record.

Under the American system, delay is avoided because a jury, members of which must return to their private lives as soon as possible, hear the facts. Hence, under the American system, while lawyers proffer evidence, they do so at the soonest time possible because of the time constraints of the jurors. When we adopted this adversarial system sans the jury system, we guaranteed the kind of delays that we see in cases such as the Ampatuan massacre case.

For the record, I understand the predicament of Judge Solis-Reyes. She has to read literally hundreds of thousands of transcripts and stenographic notes. But the state has still the obligation to accord victims with an adequate and speedy domestic remedy. I hope that the only good arising from the deadliest attack against journalists, if any, would result in systemic changes in our defective criminal justice system that we currently have.