{"id":240574,"date":"2019-12-21T04:43:31","date_gmt":"2019-12-21T09:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=240574"},"modified":"2019-12-21T05:01:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-21T10:01:13","slug":"serious-flaws-in-ph-justice-system-must-be-rectified-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/12\/21\/serious-flaws-in-ph-justice-system-must-be-rectified-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Serious flaws\u2019 in PH justice system must be rectified: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cWhile the rule of law has prevailed following (Thursday\u2019s) promulgation by the trial court on the case of the Maguindanao massacre, the Palace notes that there are serious flaws in our justice system long-existing and must be rectified if we are to be fealty to the rule of law and due process as enshrined in our Constitution,\u201d he added. (File Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The acquittal of some 56 accused in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre case proves there are \u201cserious flaws\u201d in the country\u2019s justice system that need to be corrected, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have commended the efforts of our prosecutors — and that commendation is unchanged,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, a former counsel of Andal Ampatuan Jr. in the Maguindanao massacre case, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the rule of law has prevailed following (Thursday\u2019s) promulgation by the trial court on the case of the Maguindanao massacre, the Palace notes that there are serious flaws in our justice system long-existing and must be rectified if we are to be fealty to the rule of law and due process as enshrined in our Constitution,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 absolved the 56 accused of criminal liability over the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre of 58 people, including 32 media workers, in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.<\/p>\n

The decade-old Maguindanao massacre case is dubbed the worst election-related case and the single deadliest attack on journalists in Philippine history.<\/p>\n

Most of those acquitted were policemen assigned to Maguindanao province, several were alleged members of the then-powerful Ampatuan family\u2019s militia, and two were members of the controversial clan accused of orchestrating the crime.<\/p>\n

Solis-Reyes ruled that the accused police officers were deemed \u201ctotally innocent\u201d of the crimes charged against them.<\/p>\n

Datu Akmad Ampatuan and Datu Sajid Islam Ampatuan, meanwhile, were exonerated because the prosecution failed to present evidence that they were part of the grisly murder of the 58 victims.<\/p>\n

Solis-Reyes, however, sentenced Maguindanao massacre masterminds Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr., Zaldy Ampatuan, and Anwar Ampatuan Sr. to reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment without parole.<\/p>\n

About 15 of the 101 accused were slapped with up to 10 years imprisonment for being accessories to the brutal crime.<\/p>\n

Acquittal of accused \u2018not an isolated case\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo acknowledged that the case of the 56 defendants who were exonerated from multiple murder charges was \u201cnot an isolated case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resultant tragedy is the deprivation of the liberty of the persons adjudged as innocent by the court. It is not an isolated case. There are hundreds of similar pending cases in other courts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Panelo noted that apart from \u201cthrowing away (the) productive years of those accused who were pronounced not guilty,\u201d government resources, including man-hours and effort, \u201chave gone to waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the \u201cblindfolded Lady Justice\u201d symbolizes an \u201cimpartial proceeding without regard to the social and political status of those haled before the mighty and unforgiving arm of the law, uninfluenced by the torrent of adverse people\u2019s judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government, forever unaffected and unmoved by the infectious winds of public opinion, must pursue and protect this ideal,\u201d Panelo said. \u201cThis is one lesson we must all learn lest we repeat the same grievous error at the cost of liberty and honor of the innocents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avoid repeat of \u2018injustice\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo cited that the \u201cmajor cause of this aberration\u201d was the filing of charges before the court against any accused, even if the evidence presented before the investigating public prosecutor \u201ccannot sustain a conviction of an accused of a crime to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also noted that the \u201chasty and heedless\u201d filing of information was due \u201ceither to the faulty appreciation of evidence by — or the fear of — the investigating prosecutor to be subjected to an administrative sanction or get a reprisal from the complainant if the case is dismissed at the preliminary investigation stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelo expressed hope that there would be no repeat of \u201cinjustice\u201d experienced by the 56 acquitted in the Maguindanao massacre case.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn analysis of the court\u2019s judgment shows that 10 years of what could have been productive lives of 56 acquitted accused have been wasted in incarceration, and necessarily their families have since become dysfunctional, with their wives and their children bearing the brunt of the stigma and the humiliation that come with it, scarring them for the rest of their lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an injustice that cannot be countenanced nor continue. It must not find print ever again in the pages of our history as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Respect court\u2019s ruling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar said he was \u201csatisfied\u201d with the court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

Andanar said he respects Solis-Reyes\u2019 decision, as he believed that the latter had to go through a \u201cdemocratic and judicial\u201d process to ensure the release of a fair ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cEh kung \u2018yun naman ang desisyon ng judge, \u2018di ba, hindi natin puwedeng kontrahin iyon (Whatever the decision of the judge is, we cannot oppose it),\u201d he said over RMN on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is victory to the media industry sa Pilipinas (in the Philippines). Ito rin ay isang panalo para sa media sa buong mundo. At pinakamalaking panalo ito sa pamilya ng mga biktima (This is also a victory for the media across the world. This is a huge victory for the families of the victims),\u201d Andanar added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The acquittal of some 56 accused in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre case proves there are \u201cserious flaws\u201d in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":240575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,54365,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-instagram","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240576,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240574\/revisions\/240576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}