Leonen urges shift from punishment to healing

Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen has called for sweeping reforms in the Philippine justice system, describing the Revised Penal Code as outdated and overly focused on punishment instead of rehabilitation.

In his keynote speech at the Restorative Justice Training and Conference, Leonen said the country’s justice framework — largely inherited from the Spanish colonial rule — continues to operate under a “classical theory of punishment” that assumes individuals are fully rational actors who deliberately choose to commit crimes, ignoring deeper social and economic contexts.

“Our justice system has had a long history of punitive justice. It is time to consider other perspectives,” Leonen said.

He criticized the system’s excessive focus on incarceration, saying it neglects the rehabilitation of offenders and the social reintegration process, lamenting the exclusion of the community, which he identified as the fifth pillar of the justice system, from the process of healing and accountability.

Likewise, Leonen raised ethical concerns about the moral foundation of legal punishment, citing philosopher David Boonin’s argument in “The Problem of Punishment.”

According to Boonin, state-imposed punishment often treats offenders in ways that would be morally unacceptable outside the legal system.

Leonen instead called for a shift toward restorative justice — a model that focuses on healing, victim restitution, and reintegration, rather than retribution.

“This conference is part of a broader dialogue on meaningful judicial reforms,” he said. “We must move toward a system that reflects not just the letter of the law, but the spirit of justice.”