Judicial reforms
While this prison overcrowding is old news, what’s new is Remulla saying the judiciary has been releasing aging persons deprived of liberty.
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Daily TribuneWhile this prison overcrowding is old news, what’s new is Remulla saying the judiciary has been releasing aging persons deprived of liberty.
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Justice Secretary Boying Remulla said a mouthful in a recent interview on Daily Tribune's online show Straight Talk.
One of the highlights was his comments on the urgent need to undertake reforms on the filing of cases — in which state lawyers will not rely on "probable cause" in criminal prosecutions.
Probable cause refers to "such facts as are sufficient to engender a well-founded belief that a crime has been committed and the respondent is probably guilty of."
Remulla said: "There's a higher standard of evidence that we are putting up, and not just probable cause."
What he meant was, prosecutors should work their asses off and apply their knowledge of the law in building up solid evidence against the accused.
A Daily Tribune report on the Remulla interview said "probable cause has been overused for the sake of compliance by law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to rack up empty 'accomplishments' — in which police officers pride themselves of having 'solved' or 'closed' cases once charges have been lodged before prosecutors or the courts."
Remulla added that the practice of having quotas when arresting drug suspects "must end."
Another highlight of the Remulla interview was his revelation that all seven Bureau of Corrections jailhouses in the country are "250 percent overcrowded."
While this prison overcrowding is old news, what's new is Remulla saying the judiciary has been releasing aging persons deprived of liberty.
First, he said: "There are around 30,000 people in facilities designed for only 9,500."
These numbers, he pointed out, do not include persons detained in "the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology whose facilities are also congested with inmates on their pre-trial and/or trial proper of their cases."
He lamented: "You can imagine the kind of life they have to live."
As for the good news, more than 5,000 inmates within the BJMP system have been freed. Some 600 more will be released this Christmas under the executive clemency program.
"The BuCor releases deserving inmates on a monthly basis while the BJMP does it every week," said the Daily Tribune report.
Obviously, that's not enough.
"But we need to do more because our jails are just so full. It's very inhumane to keep people in such a bad state," Remulla said.
An executive order of then-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stipulated "the release of senior citizens 70 years old and older."
There were other matters Remulla discussed regarding reforms in the judicial system. On paper, it looks praiseworthy. In reality, hopefully, everything gets done before his term ends.
