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Glimmers of hope: A report on the Philippine Criminal Justice System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2018

Roy Panti Valenzuela
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Abstract

There is a saying: “Justice delayed is justice denied.” The perception of a continuing failure of the Philippine criminal justice system to deliver fast and efficient justice has inevitably led to the erosion of public trust in the government. As a consequence, citizens are laden with anxiety because of unabated criminality and violence in their communities. The type of justice that leads to peace and prosperity continues to be elusive in the Philippines as the worsening scenario of jail congestion continues to manifest its malevolent implications for the human rights of prisoners. It appears that the culprit is an overwhelmed machinery of criminal justice that has not been able to keep pace with growing rates of population, urbanization and criminality. There is also an apparent imbalance in the justice structure where there are too few judges, prosecutors and public defence attorneys to process the cases filed by the numerous law enforcers who file criminal cases. This leads to bottlenecks in criminal justice procedures and has resulted, in not a few instances, in human rights crises in jails. However, emerging developments give some hope to Filipinos.

Keywords

detentionpretrial detentionovercrowdingconditions of detentionthe Philippinescriminal justice system
Type
Conditions in detention
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 98 , Issue 903: Detention: Addressing the human cost , December 2016 , pp. 845 - 849
Copyright
Copyright © icrc 2018 

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References

1 Mark Merueñas, “Too Poor to Post Bail, Thousands Spend Years in Jail without Conviction”, GMA News Online, 25 June 2013, available at: www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/specialreports/314386/too-poor-to-post-bail-thousands-spend-years-in-jail-without-conviction/story/.

2 For current figures, see the “Data and Statistics” section of the BJMP website, available at: www.bjmp.gov.ph/datstat.html. Data for earlier periods are available upon request from BJMP Directorate for Operations, 144 Mindanao Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines, Trunkline No. (0632) 9276383, email: .

3 See above note 2. Similar data for 2012 were made part of the Third Periodic Report of the Philippines to the United Nations Committee against Torture, UN Doc. CAT/C/PHL/3, 2015, available at: www.refworld.org/publisher,CAT,,PHL,56bae76c4,0.html.

4 See above note 2.

5 The original draft bill was pending during the 16th Philippine Congress. Currently, a modified version proposing community services in lieu of imprisonment is a priority bill. See Mara Cepeda, “List: 14 Bills the 17th Congress Aims to Pass by May 31”, Rappler, 2 May 2017, available at: www.rappler.com/.../168632-philippines-17th-congress-bills-pass-by-may-31.

6 See Republic of the Philippines, National Economic and Development Authority, Philippine Development Plan 2017–2022, 2017, available at: www.neda.gov.ph/2017/07/26/philippine-development-plan-2017-2022/.

7 Senate Bill No. 1452 and House Bill No. 335.

8 Department of Justice, National Prosecution Service, The 2000 Bail Bond Guide, 2000, available at: https://legalhawk.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/bailbond-guide.pdf.

9 Rules of Court of the Philippines, Rule 114, § 9, available at: www.lawphil.net/courts/rules/rc_110-127_crim.html.

10 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, Article III, § 13, available at: www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/1987-constitution/.