Looming judicial crisis
UNBEKNOWNST to many, the business community has an advocacy for reforms in the judiciary known as the Judicial Reform Initiatives (JRI). I only found out about this when we were making the golden jubilee book of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX).
Let me quote from the awardwinning book titled “FINEX 50: Leading on to Wider Frontiers” published in 2018:
“FINEX was a principal proponent of the JRI, a coalition of business organizations to push for judicial reforms especially as they affect the business sector. The lead JRI members are FINEX,
Management Association of the Philippines, Makati Business Club, Foreign Chambers of Commerce in the Philippines, Institute of Corporate Directors, Philippine Institute of Arbitrators, and Movement for the Restoration of Peace and Order.
“On first impression, judicial reform appears tangential to the concerns of financial executives, but that’s a wrong impression.
Many business plans and operations prosper or are hampered by how the judiciary functions, efficiently or inefficiently, fairly or unfairly, speedily or slowly. This is clear enough. We are all aware, for example, of frivolous temporary restraining orders or TROs by judges, which disrupt business projects, or of cases that remain unresolved like forever and keep business litigants in limbo. And of course, corruption among some judges is a scourge, indeed, a well-known secret, but lawyers themselves who know won’t talk (or could be part of the secret).
“JRI has sponsored breakfast forums with Supreme Court Justices to get the business community to better understand the ongoing judicial reforms. But more than this, and more importantly, JRI is engaged, if quietly, formally or informally, with the office of the Supreme Court Chief Justice and with legislators, to get the complaints and concerns of the business sector heard – with workable solutions offered.”
Now comes an administrative circular from newly-minted Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo addressed to Justices and court users alike: “Considering the unabated rise of Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) cases, the request of judges and court personnel, and upon the concurrence of the members of the court en bank, ALL the courts and judicial offices in the National Capital Judicial Region and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal shall remain physically closed until 18 April 2021.”
This followed a similar announcement from former Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta prior to his early retirement last month. According to a corporate lawyer who previously worked in the Supreme Court, the judiciary will be in trouble soon due to the rising number of judges, prosecutors and public attorneys falling prey to Covid-19.
The concerned lawyer said: “Throughout the pandemic last year, the courts remained open because justice needs to be served, or at least justice needs to keep turning. Each judge was just given a budget of about P7,000 to P15,000 depending on court level to provide for personal protection against the virus. An acrylic barrier costs between P20,000 to P50,000 depending on how much they want to be protected. Most just got plastic book covers and used it as a barrier between the bar and the bench.”
Some judges reportedly spent up to P100,000 of their own money to buy air filters, personal protective equipment, alcohol, among others. But not all judges could afford these supplies nor can they work from home because cases are filed everyday and case records are quite voluminous. Not all of them have the resources to bring such documents home and have the space to store them until the next hearing.
“We are not even looking at the court personnel – the staff of each court from the Clerk of Court to the messenger. They’re all at risk, too. Worse, they are not easily replaceable. It takes as many years to produce a lawyer as a doctor and also as many years to master the law, including rigorous training paid by the taxpayers, based on the assumption that they will be there until they retire at 70. Imagine the retraining needed to fill up these positions,” the lawyer lamented since many of them are former colleagues.
It’s time for the JRI to look into this looming crisis in the judicial branch of government. Not only the country’s health system is on the verge of collapse, but also the judicial system that serves as the last bastion of democracy in our benighted land.