On the Broken Philippine Criminal Justice System
Published for Philippine readers in 2019.
Let me tell you a true-crime story.
“On July 16th, 1997, on the island of Cebu, 23-year-old Marijoy Chiong and her 20-year-old sister Jacqueline disappeared while waiting for their father to pick them up from work. Later, a bloodied, handcuffed, and blindfolded body was found. This body was later identified as being Marijoy’s. Her sister’s body was never found. At the time of the sisters’ disappearance, Francisco Juan “Paco” Larrañaga was in Manila, 300 miles away. However, Larrañaga, with a record of petty crimes, was arrested and charged with kidnap, rape, and murder.
After Larrañaga’s arrest, the media frenzy intensified and the Chiong’s mother, Thelma, became the focus of public attention. The public and government pressure to convict Larrañaga increased as Thelma’s sister was a personal secretary to Joseph Estrada, the newly elected president of the Philippines. There was no physical evidence linking Larrañaga to the crime. However, eight months after Larrañaga’s arrest, the prosecution found one eyewitness, a young drug addict named Davidson Rusia. Rusia confessed to the police that he was present with the others when they raped and murdered the Chiong sisters.
At trial, Larrañaga’s counsel was only given 30 minutes to cross-examine Rusia, the prosecution’s main witness and sole source of evidence against the defendants. Rusia’s cellmates later reported that Rusia had been repeatedly tortured before confessing adding to the suspicion of his testimony. In addition, the judge would not allow all of Larrañaga’s alibi witnesses to testify. Three months after the trial ended, the judge issued his decision finding Larrañaga guilty. In 2004, the Supreme Court affirmed Larrañaga’s conviction and sentenced him to death by lethal injection.”
The same happened to Marlon Parazo. In March 1995, he was found guilty of assaulting a woman and he was convicted of rape and attempted homicide. Except that Marlon Parazo was deaf, mute, blind, and reportedly retarded. At his trial, it was reported that the court “made no attempt to ensure that he understood the proceedings against him.” During the trial, no one — not even Marlon Parazo’s court-appointed defense lawyer — made any reference to his disabilities. He was deaf and mute and retarded. How could he have defended himself?
What do these two stories have in common? They both expose the faults in the Philippine Criminal Justice System and of those enforcing them. The Supreme Court, itself admitted that death sentences had been wrongly imposed in 71.77% percent of all the capital punishment cases it had reviewed since 1993. That means 7 out of 10 capital punishment rulings were not in fact correct and were errors of the judiciary. In addition, a 2004 study found that more than 45% of inmates on death row claimed to have been tortured by the police. Many-a-times our justice system has become one that discriminates against those unable to defend themselves, those who are convicted under convenience.
My dad used to be part of jail ministries in my community and he told me the story of a man who had been in jail for around a decade waiting for the court to decide on his case. He wasn’t convicted yet. HE was simply a suspect. And yet he spent a decade in jail because the court couldn’t decide on his case. This is another problem hounding the judiciary. That is, the lack of budget and manpower, leading to courts without judges.
Special Counsel to the Senate Jose Diokno said courts, “if lucky”, take at least 6 to 10 years to decide on criminal cases, while some take as long as 29 years. This means that there are suspects out there — suspects, possibly innocent — that are spending as long as 29 years long in jails waiting for their trial. High-profile cases are no exception to this, such as the Maguindanao massacre, which has been ongoing for 7 years now. How much more for ordinary criminal cases? This is our country. How broken must this system be before we citizens act on it? Should we allow this cancer to eat its way into the heart of our society until we devolve into outright anarchy and oppression?
In this essay, I outline 5 steps by which we can improve our criminal justice system.
Step 1: Stop the use of solitary confinement in prisons, particularly for juveniles in detention facilities. Solitary confinement has become a widespread prison management tool where people are held, in extreme isolation, sometimes for years or decades. But it does more harm than good. People locked up in solitary often come out more psychologically and physically damaged than when they went in. Solitary confinement is fundamentally inhumane, extremely costly, contrary to the public good, and often unnecessary.
Step 2: Reduce violence in prison by improving prison accountability and leadership. People are sent to prison because they were convicted of a crime. Their punishment is the prison sentence itself. Yet, thousands of prisoners — including those who are incarcerated for non-violent crimes — become the victims of sexual assault and other violent attacks while serving prison sentences. When their sentence is over, they return to society more damaged, traumatized, and maladjusted then when they entered in the first place. If you want to reduce high rates of criminals relapsing into their criminal activities after prison, make prisons safer, and hold administrators accountable for the devastating violence that occurs under their watch.
Step 3: Support public defender offices and other organizations that fight for equality in the criminal justice system. Public defenders serve poor people accused of crimes. It is a hard and often heart-breaking job, involving far too many cases and far too little resources to do the job required of them by the Constitution. A good public defender is the best defense against injustice to those unable to defend themselves.
Step 4: Hold prosecutors and police responsible for deliberate misconduct. Police and prosecutors who deliberately engage in misconduct are rarely held liable for their actions. I’m talking about serious misconduct that lands innocent people in jail, such as hiding or destroying evidence that could clear the accused of charges, or fabricating evidence to make a defendant appear guilty, or relying on testimony that is known to be false, or obtaining and then using coerced confessions. An example of this is the Larrañaga case that I mentioned a while ago. He was convicted because the police were pressured into looking for a suspect. Many-a-times people are arrested out of convenience and not evidence. That needs to change. And fast. A policy of liability for deliberate misconduct could make those state actors think twice before they play fast and loose with people’s lives. We need to punish those prosecutors and police responsible for misconduct leading to injustice.
Step 5: Pay attention to — and speak out — about injustice whenever you see it. Following the 2004 decision, Larrañaga’s supporters began a campaign to gather widespread support for him. According to FreePacoNow, the Larrañagas turned to Spain for help. Amnesty International also helped create nationwide momentum to free Larrañaga. As more pressure was increasing against the government, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo abolished the nation’s death penalty in June 2006.
Finally, in 2009, Larrañaga was transferred to Spain under a new prisoner-transfer treaty to serve out the remainder of his sentence. HE was saved from the death sentence.
Just like Larrañaga’s supporters we too can make a difference in our society. We can stand up and preach justice whenever we see injustice. Yes, the criminal justice system is desperately in need of reform. But reform will only occur when people speak with unified conviction about a more just and equitable system that focuses more on public safety than on a person’s class status. When people in large numbers speak out for justice, policymakers will have no choice but to respond. We can fix our broken criminal justice system. We can fix it if we as citizens of society proclaim, “Justice! Justice for all.”
The time is ripe for change. Here’s to fixing our broken criminal justice system. And here’s to making it happen in our lifetimes.
