Philippine Jails: A Human Wrong

rbr8 — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:31:48 +0000

A good way to measure a civil society’s sense of humanity and justice is to take a closer look how it manages its jail system.

The state of Detention Centers in Metro-Manila is a clear manifestation of the failure of the criminal judicial system to adhere to the 1987 Philippines Constitution’s mandate to build a just and human society for the poor.

In practice, government institutions in the Philippines responsible for the jail system and judicial courts have contributed to the problem of the poor’s right to due process including equal access to the courts, right to adequate counsel, right to bail, speedy trial, to be presumed innocent and not to be subjected to degrading and inhuman punishment.

Even before conviction, the poor, despite presumed innocence, and because they are unable to post bail, are cramped into cells designed for criminals. Having no lawyers of their own, the swamped Public Attorney’s Office are unable to handle cases with the vigor that they would want to. Having no advocate, the poor’s hearings are scheduled months or even years one after the other. With a judicial system that on an average lasts from 5 to 8 years, the innocent poor spend their productive years on the Philippine jails with the guilty and convicted.

And for some who are finally convicted are released after conviction because they have served more time than the maximum sentence prescribed for the crime they are convicted for.

To say that cells are crowded is misleading. “Crowded” at least assumes minimal space. The cells are cramped beyond living conditions. Unable to fit people lying down, sleeping sessions are rotated. People relieve themselves inches away from others. Disease spread and sexual promiscuity abound. The sick dies because of lack of medical attention.

With a broken judicial system where 99% of killings are unsolved, the poor’s ability to defend himself or herself is severely placed in doubt.

In the process, the families they support are deprived of livelihood. Even sleeping moments with the people they love are cherished. They suffer.

And as the years progress, some are acquitted while others innocent poor evolve thinking they themselves are criminals.

The jail and penal managements of the detention centers cannot solve this problems even with their good intentions, because their solutions is above and beyond their responsibility and budgetary constraints.

The rich, the privileged and accused with connections never experience this.

This is injustice.

(These images were taken through the auspices of Associate Justice Roberto Abad of the Philippine Supreme Court and with the support of HumanWrongs.org to call attention to the realities faced by litigants nationwide such as delays in trials, inadequate facilities and equipment in courthouses, clogged dockets and conditions of overcrowding, inhuman living conditions of detainees in detention centers. It is also to call attention to the Judiciary’s outdated adversarial system of litigation, a system which local courts have inherited from the Americans a hundred years ago. The Philippine Supreme Court is set to establish a new model for hearing and adjudicating claims that combines the best features of both the adversarial and the inquisitorial systems of litigation. The Court hopes to promote the advantages of adopting a new system of trying cases which will promote authentic, speedy justice in Philippine courts.)

HUMAN WRONGS - PHILIPPINES

Philippine Jails: A Human Wrong