It was a supreme test on how the blindfolded Lady Justice will act in the face of the public outrage, pressure and bias.

The long wait is over. The court has handed down its monumental decision in one of the grisly massacres in our country. And as we have anticipated, it was a guilty verdict to most of the principal accused.

Last Thursday, 19 December, the nation’s attention was riveted to the promulgation of the judgment in the infamous Maguindanao Massacre case. To kins of the victims and the general public, the world stood still as they waited with bated breath for every word the Clerk of Court uttered reading the decision. The publicity in the run up to the resolution was unprecedented. This was not unexpected given that the victims were mostly media practitioners.

My golf buddy Gerry Collado, PhD. posted in our chat room his insights: “I lament the very slow grind of our system… (It) needs to treat heinous crimes with some sense of urgency. Justice delayed is justice denied.” Gerry has expressed the lament of majority of our people.

In any jurisdiction, 10 years is unusually long for the wheel of justice to grind. In the Philippines, delay has become the normal despite sincere efforts of the Supreme Court (SC) to initiate reforms (retired Justice Antonio Carpio was in the forefront of these reforms). The Massacre, horrible by any standard, happened 23 November 2009 and more than a decade has passed to this day. The inordinate delay has pained the relatives of victims.

But there are peculiarities of the case which worked against rushing resolution. There were 197 accused (117 were arrested while 80 are still at large) for the gruesome murder of 58 persons, including 32 media practitioners and workers, a first in the history of our country, and perhaps in the world. The principal accused were the most powerful and feared Ampatuan family. They once held sway over a large swathe of Morolandia like monarchs where even Presidents pay homage to seek favor. Candidates, local and national could not win in their fiefdoms sans their anointment.

Quezon City Regional Trial Court, Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes was specially designated by the SC to try the case. She did not have much choice. She was shackled by law, jurisprudence, rules of procedure and the hallowed principles of due process of law, presumption of innocence, etc. which she observed to the letter.

History was staring at her. The judiciary’s raison d’être, i.e., fairness and justice was on trial. It was a supreme test on how the blindfolded Lady Justice will act in the face of the public outrage, pressure and bias. She has toiled for decade living a lonely and recluse life focused only on one thing — search for justice. One can imagine the stress that came with the monotony of the quotidian routine of hearing endless legal hermeneutics, nuances of law, connecting the dots in the puzzle and weaving bit by bit the pieces of evidence she had meticulously vetted to form a judgment.

It was a litmus test for the judiciary for which Judge Reyes came out with flying colors.

The toga-robed gods of Padre Faura have found a “poster boy” in Judge Reyes. They must be beaming. It has in a way slacken the downward spiral of people’s trust on our judicial system.

Observers cannot help but ask: how much of the people’s ire and cry for vengeance played out in the decision? How much of the media reportage which prematurely condemned and prejudged the accused influenced the finding of the court?

The verdict was expected. Any lawyer worth his salt will say it was an open and shut case. It was an airtight case for the people. It’s not because of the national pain it caused and the public outrage but for the volume and integrity of the multitude of evidence researched and collated by the prosecution panel initially led by Senior Deputy Prosecutor General Richard “Dong” Fadullon. The scene — convoy of vehicles, cadavers strewn on dirty grounds, the luminous presence of a backhoe owned by Provincial government of Maguindanao, the victims being dug out because they were buried along with their vehicles, the defiant faces of the accused are haunting pictures that kept flashing on the public mind for months on end.

From day one of the trial, the guillotine has been readied. With media live-stream coverage last Thursday, the public looked no different from a lynching mob in wild wild west.