NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews / 07 November) – The prosecution of corruption cases needs to speed up for justice to triumph.
Speed is justice.
It is comforting that Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla has assured the public that he would act with dispatch on those charged with corruption and plunder in the revolting flood control anomaly.
Meanwhile, the acquittal of the corruption case against the 101-year-old former Senate president and currently chief legal adviser of PBBM, Juan Ponce Enrile, dismayed and infuriated anti-corruption advocates. The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan handed down the verdict on Friday, October 4, after more than 10 years of trial.
In a protracted litigation, some witnesses might already be gone for one reason or another, or their memories muddled, or had lapsed, or documentary evidence disappeared, or had been lost, resulting in the acquittal of the accused. Moreover, there would be a lot of turnover of judges that may affect decisions in protracted litigations.
The long period spent in trying the charges against corrupt lawmakers and private individuals, which ended in their eventual acquittal, might have resulted also from the leniency by past administrations toward erring public officials.
For instance, President Erap Estrada. Erap, who was convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan, was pardoned by his nemesis, President Gloria Arroyo. Also, the 89-year-old Imelda Marcos, who was convicted of corruption with a jail term for 42 years, after more than two decades of prosecution, is scot-free after being allowed by a more tolerant graft court to post a bail of P150K.
The acquittal of former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, his former chief-of-staff Gigi Reyes, and pork barrel operator Janet Lim Napoles underscores the continuing corruption and impunity that have enabled politicians and corrupt bureaucrats to steal from the national coffers without fear of being held accountable for their crimes.
Nothing has changed through the years. Corruption has not ebbed. What changed were the maneuvers of corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and cohorts, which have morphed into more subtle forms, like the current lawmakers’ craze on insertion and commitment highlighted in the flood control scam.
We may not be able to end such a culture of corruption and impunity, but perhaps we may curb it by introducing innovations to our justice system, like training and hiring more prosecutors, and installing more judges, giving them attractive salaries, and adopting the system of nonstop trials for high-profile cases.
Such innovations will, no doubt, speed up the prosecution of cases. In Imelda and Enrile’s case, there was a huge gap between the indictment and the resolution. More than 20 years for Imelda Marcos and more than 10 years for Juan Ponce Enrile. As already said, a lot of things happen to influence the outcome of a case in a protracted litigation.
There is also a need to uphold transparency in the court’s proceedings. The media should not be threatened with a sub judice stick, prohibiting it from publishing anything about a case under consideration by a court. Media coverage keeps the public interest in the case alive and alerts them on its development or twists. The people’s right to information is greater than the fear of prejudicing the rights of the accused.
Finally, more corruption watchdogs should be organized across the country and networked for effectiveness.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., is retired professor and former chancellor of Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental)