08/03/2022
"Do not allow anyone to erode your values, principles, and idealism."
Excerpt from Chief Justice Sereno's speech at Adamson University, September 16, 2017.
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Full text here:
THE FILIPINO YOUTH, CHARGING FORWARD
IN STRENGTHENING INSTITUTIONS
A pleasant energized afternoon to all of you. I am grateful to the Adamson University Student Government and the Vincentian community for this opportunity. I am impressed that you, young leaders, see the importance of excellence in the pursuit of social justice and the rule of law. Indeed one cannot underestimate the power of young people who demand accountability from government, and demand that service by the government must be rendered in an atmosphere of excellence.
Working Institutions As Refuge in Times of Crises
Marami na po sa ating mga kababayan ang nagsasabing, walang kwenta umasa at maniwala sa mga institusyon. By institutions, I mean the church, the school and government.
Napakadaling sabihin na nagkulang sila – mga eskwelahang hindi maturuan nang tama ang mga bata, simbahang napipintasan dahil sa pagkakamali ng ilan, at gobyernong makupad at hindi makapagbigay ng tunay na solusyon.
Sa hanay namin sa hudikatura, tinatanong kami kung paano magkakahustisya kung mabagal ang proseso at kulang naman ang mga abogadong aayuda sa mga mahihirap na napagbibintangan ng krimen.
Dahil dito, maraming nagsabing isantabi na lamang natin ang mga ito, at pumanig na tayo sa kahit anumang sistema basta’t mabilis ang solusyon – sa kawalang hanapbuhay, sa mataas na presyo, at sa kawalan ng hustisya.
Payagan niyo po akong bigyan ng konteksto ang aking mga ilalahad.
Pinalaki po ako ng isang inang public school teacher na maliit ang sweldo kaya’t pinilit niyang dagdagan ito sa kita mula sa isang cottage industry, ang paggawa ng mga handbags, shopping bags at wallet. Ang mga impormal na empleyado nya ay ang mga estudyante niyang panggabi, mga working students po, galing rin lahat sa mahirap na pamilya.
Ang akin pong ama, minsan walang kita, minsan may kita sa empleyo, minsan mayroon makukuhang maliit na kontrata sa cottage industry rin nya na paggawa ng printed election materials at wrought iron furnitures. Lahat po ng gawaing ito, pinagkakasya nila sa maliit naming apartment sa Kamuning.
Nakita po ng murang isipan ko ang kahalagan ng hustisya. Merong napagbintangan ng mali, at dahil doon ay nakalaboso; nakita ko po ang trauma sa buong pamilya ng mga kapitbahay kong napagbintangan. Dito po nalinaw sa akin na sa bawat mahirap na nakukulong sa maling bintang, limang buhay ang nawawasak. Hindi makapasok sa eskwelahan ang mga bata kasi si Nanay kailangan puntahan si Tatay sa presinto. Kapag absent ang mga bata sa klase nang higit sa isang linggo, malamang tatanggalin na sya sa eskwela. Nahihiya naman po ang batang mangumpisal sa kanyang titser na si Tatay ay nasa kulungan. At dahil po hindi makapasok si Nanay sa trabaho, lugaw lang ang kakainin ng buong mag-anak. At magsisimula nang mag-isip ng masasamang balak ang mga dati’y inosenteng mga bata upang maiahon sa napakalagim nilang sitwasyon, at makapaghiganti sa mapang-aping sistema.
Noong ako po ay bago sa abogasya, kinailangan ko pong maglamay sa police station upang siguraduhing hindi masasaktan ang aking pro bono na kliyente. Kapitbahay po sya ng isang hardinero. Yung boss ng hardinero, minurder, at matindi ang pressure sa pulisya na mag-announce ng solusyon. Dinampot nila ang hardinero; ayon sa aking kliyente, hindi tinigilan ang pagbugbog sa hardinero hangga’t hindi siya magbigay ng ilan pang mga pangalan. Binigay po niya ang pangalan ng mga kapitbahay niya at inanunsyo ng pulis na “solved” na nila ang kaso. Nakita ko po ang pagkawasak sa pagkatao ng aking kliyente; hindi ko na po nasilayan kung ano ang nangyari sa hardinero. Nilapitan ako ng pulis sa aking pagkakaupo at tinanong kung mayroon akong gustong ipaligpit at mura lamang daw po ito. Kinaumagahan, inilabas ko na ang aking kliyente. Marami pong kagaya nitong kwento ko na pinag-uusapan namin sa komunidad ng mga abogado.
Naranasan na rin po naming pamilya ang hirap maningil ng pagpapautang at ang pamimilipit ng nagpautang na makahanap ng pondo sa panahon ng kaniyang kagipitan, pondong sana’y nasa kamay niya na, kung hindi lamang sa pambabalasubas ng kapitbahay, kamag-anak o kaibigan na pinautang. Nakita ko po na ang mayayaman, kayang kumuha ng abogado para makasingil, ang malilit po ang sahod o negosyo, nakatunganga na lamang. At inisip ko na ang hindi makatarungang pagtanggi na magbayad sa utang, lalo na sa maliliit, ay isang kawalan ng hustisya.
Kaya’t nang ako ay maging Chief Justice, sabi ko, gagawan ko ng solusyon ang problema ng hustisya para sa maliliit.
At nakita ko naman po, na dahan-dahan nang nagbabago ang mga ahensya ng hustisya - pulisya, prosekusyon, (na parehong nasa ilalim ng Ehekutibo) at ang Hudikatura. Ito po ay sa pamamalakad ko bilang Co-Chairperson ng Justice Sector Coordinating Council.
Napahanga po ako sa reform programs ng pulisya. Matinding computerization program, professionalization at values formation. Nagtayo na rin po kami, kasama ng Hudikatura at Department of Justice ng pagpapataas ng antas ng paglikom, paghawak at pagprisinta ng ebidensya sa mga criminal investigation at prosecution.
Sa hanay naman ng prosekusyon, nakita ko po ang taimtim nilang pagnanasa na maparami ang kanilang panalong kaso at mapahusay ang kanilang pag-review ng mga rekomendasyon kung magsasampa sila o hindi ng kasong kriminal sa mga pinagbibintangan. Inaayos na nila sana ang kanilang napakataas na clogged dockets.
Sa hanay ng Hudikatura, madami na pong nagawa kaming mga huwes upang pagbutihin at pabilisan ang paghatol sa aming mga korte. Ikwekwento ko ang detalye ng mga ito.
Sa madaling salita, dahan-dahan nang itinatayo ang matatag na pundasyon ng hustisya, noong panahong hindi pa tayo nagkakaroon ng maraming mga di-katanggap-tanggap na patayan, dahil nag-uusap na po at nagkokoordina na ng galaw ang mga aktor ng hustisya. Kailangan nating ibalik ang trajectory of reform na ito. Kailangan natin uling gawing pangunahing layunin ang pagpapalaganap ng katarungan.
A Responsive Judiciary Committed to Deliver Justice
The Supreme Court is committed to put in place reform programs so people will finally experience a responsive judiciary. Wherever I go and talk with people, not just judges and employees, and from the thousands of letters my office receives, I hear cries for help — ranging from those crying out for justice, to those requesting assistance in obtaining action from agencies of the other branches of government; to complaints against judges and court employees; to suggestions on how to improve the justice system. Most of these complaints paint one picture — a slow and unfair dispensation of justice. Please be assured: we understand your plight; we hear you and we are still hearing you. This is the reality of Philippine society – there is insufficient faith in the justice system and therefore we must work hard to ensure that confidence in the justice system will be built up. We have worked hard from day one to restore this confidence and we are relentlessly working on it.
Allow me to describe to you some of the reform measures that are meant to make people believe again that justice can be real in the Philippines.
Procedural Reforms and Legal Aid
Let me quote the constitutional mandate of the Supreme Court — to “(p)romulgate rules concerning the protection and enforcement of constitutional rights, pleading, practice, and procedure in all courts, the admission to the practice of law, the integrated bar, and legal assistance to the underprivileged.” My take on this is that we in the Judiciary must aggressively pursue reforms in our rules of procedures to ensure fair, speedy, and inexpensive dispensation of justice and help expand legal aid for the downtrodden. These are some of our key reform achievements in this area:
1. The Court has approved the Revised Guidelines for Continuous Trial of Criminal Cases, which have taken effect nationwide on 1 September 2017. This will allow us to conduct trials that are set only one day apart, uninterrupted by dilatory postponements. These rules are expected to shorten the duration of criminal cases from the average of 5 years to less than a year. As an example of what can be achieved, last year we were cited by an international organization for having achieved something previously unthinkable – a trial court was able to render a conviction on a human trafficking case five months after it was filed. We expect more dramatic results as we implement the continuous trial guidelines.
2. We have revised the rules and expanded the small claims courts, where cases involving claims of Php 200,000 or less are resolved within 2-6 months. Lawyers are also disallowed in small claims courts, and this enables the wage earner, the small trader, and others who cannot afford lawyers’ fees to protect their claims in court. Earlier this year, we launched a massive information drive to reach out to Filipinos both here and abroad. With development partners and business volunteers, we went to malls, the main thoroughfares through LED billboards, social media, cinemas, and embassies to deliver the message for a fast, simple, and inexpensive remedy. The small claims procedure will surely benefit our OFWs who only have short vacations in the Philippines and do not have sufficient time to spend in prolonged litigation.
3. The Court has also encouraged the establishment of more legal aid clinics in law schools to reach out to the underprivileged, even as we mold young minds about what lawyering should truly be. For aspiring law students here, soon enough you will have the opportunity to be of assistance to our countrymen and make legal services more accessible to our people even while you’re still studying. Your law school dean, Ada Abad is leading that effort as President of the Philippine Association of Law Schools.
4. Also, the Guidelines on Jail Decongestion of 2014 established local Task Force Katarungan and Kalayaan that shall keep track of the progress of criminal cases of detained persons, and ensure that they are afforded all their rights through the detainees’ notebook and electronic service of subpoena. In Manila City where the Task Force was piloted in 2011, 490 out of the 550 identified qualified detainees in January 2014, and 456 of the 486 identified qualified detainees in January 2015, have already been released, contributing to the inmate decongestion in the Manila City Jail. With the success in the first pilot, additional sites for Task Force Katarungan at Kalayaan were established in Makati City, Muntinlupa City, Pasay City, and Quezon City this year.
5. To increase access to lawyers’ services by people in the margins, the Supreme Court, together with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and other law groups, is studying several proposals to require all lawyers to render legal aid.
Innovations and Bolstering Human and Material Resources for the Courts
When you look at justice on an operational level, similar to how you look at the operations of a factory, you need to check whether the inputs and the resources are flowing in so that you can meet targets and deadlines. You also try to identify innovations that can bolster your capacity to deliver more, or in our case, to dispose more cases within a shorter period, without compromising the quality of the judges’ decision-making.
1. In this regard, the Judiciary has deployed 635 court decongestion officers to help bring down the dockets of heavily congested courts across the country. This deployment is an expansion of Hustisyeah, a one-time case decongestion program participated in by law students who assisted judges in legal research and formulation of case decongestion plans. From 2013 to date, 62% or 32,060 out of 51,825 priority cases targeted for disposition have been removed from the dockets in pilot sites all over the country. Beyond numbers, the outcome of the success in our case decongestion program spells peace of mind for at least 32,060 weary litigants whose cases have long been pending in trial – they can now move on with their lives after having their cases acted upon. I would also like to acknowledge the participation of students in Hustisyeah as another clear example of the youth’s potential in shaping the direction of our country.
2. I reckon that I am speaking to a generation that is a hundred times more technologically savvy than ours and with exceptional IQ – and for this, “I” would stand for internet. I hope to excite you with the court’s Enterprise Information Systems Plan (EISP). In the same way that apps have transformed everyday transactions such as banking, shopping and even modes of transportation, we are taking advantage of this technological tool to help transform the court systems. Our eCourts app is a flagship project in our IT masterplan. It is a path to a future when lawyers can file pleadings by uploading them online while in their offices; when litigants can check the status of their cases and view their online case records on their computers or smartphones; when electronic notices to parties are sent via email or SMS. We can now see a future when halls of justice are not littered with piles of papers because all court documents are now digitized; when judges automatically issue court orders immediately after hearings using templates in an app; when judges access all their records and manage their court dockets with the click of a mouse.
By yearend, eCourts will be deployed in 10 cities, or a total of 298 courts. As of August 2017, the eCourts app has been deployed to 274 courts or 92 percent of the target, while the remaining 24 courts are undergoing training.
Out of the 274 eCourts, 159 (or 53%) are now conducting automated hearings, wherein courts issue their orders within minutes after their hearings, cutting trial time by at least a month because the orders need not go through snail mail to reach the lawyers and litigants.
By 2020, the Judiciary would have upgraded the eCourts app to allow eFiling, or online viewing of case records and electronic notices that I referred to earlier. In other words, lawyers and law students should look forward to a time when they can manage cases partly by just looking at their smartphones and laptops.
For now, it is about preparation and laying the ground. We are already providing internet to all courts, beginning with NCR, Regions III, IV-A and VIII. These courts may already use the internet to access online resources for legal research and decision writing and therefore bolstering the courts’ output. Judicial reform brings technology to the aid of faster dispensation of justice by helping judges with better and more efficient case management and court administration. The Filipino can now experience the courts equipped for the future, today.
3. We are also building more courthouses and expanding existing buildings to provide facilities for newly created courts. This is being fast-tracked for case decongestion.
In underserved far-flung areas where court infrastructure may be unavailable, we are able to deploy makeshift court buses under the Enhanced Justice on Wheels (EJOW) Program. This program has already facilitated the release of 9,000+ prisoners as of date, and through EJOW, we expect to further help Filipinos whose lives still rest in uncertainty inside detention cells/prisons.
Coordination Among Justice Sector Actors
Bear in mind however that these reforms are not done in isolation. If prosecutors, public attorneys, and the police (which all belong to the Executive branch) do not perform their duties as well, the entire criminal justice system crumbles. This is the reason why the Justice Sector Coordinating Council (comprised of the SC, DOJ and DILG) is tirelessly working to implement sector-wide reform initiatives. The flagship program of the JSCC is the justice zone – a locality where all coordinative efforts such as the eSubpoena, sector-wide capacity building, thematic fora, and other initiatives are present. We currently have the Quezon City Justice Zone. Last month, the JSCC Principals met in Cebu City to determine the city’s readiness to become a justice zone, or a center of justice and rule of law in the Philippines. We hope to let you know of further positive developments in the days to come.
Young Filipinos Charge Forward
There is still much work to be done and the road ahead is long. We in the judiciary continue to dream, hope, and strive to further reforms to strengthen the judiciary as an institution. At the end of the day, only reforms undertaken by strong and working institutions give refuge to our people, especially the vulnerable and especially in troubled times .
Indeed, these are times when everything that can be shaken is being shaken, when institutions are being challenged to their very foundations, and basic ideas of decency and human dignity seem askew. These times test our character as Filipinos – our capacity to distinguish what is right from wrong and our ability to act in the service of what is right, true, and good. While we take on the task now, you, my dear young Filipinos bear a great deal of responsibility for the well-being of the country. Right now, I stand before you to say – Do not be discouraged. Hold your ground and remain steadfast in your principles. As I have said, you possess the energy that we direly need in these times. Don’t let the pace of events and the deluge of information hamper you. Discern the truth, disregard the lies, destroy the deceptions.
You only need to look within you and around you and continue to be inspired by each other; look into your hearts and find in it the passion to be of service to your fellow Filipino. Your education has not only equipped you with the right skills and frame of mind, it has inculcated in you a strong value system that will withstand the pressure to compromise.
You are at a sweet spot where challenges are waiting to be conquered and opportunities ready to be seized. You can become champions of rule of law. Believe in the system of accountability and put your full trust in the power of strong and stable institutions. Stand firm, resist falsehoods and if the occasion calls for it – speak up. Do not allow anyone to erode your values, principles, and idealism. Resist any attempt to silence you. Remember that with all the free speech platforms available to you, your voice, much more when collectively used, can reach every decision maker. Engage and reach out. Talk to each other and do not talk down to one another. Talk and treat each other as equals. Learn how to sympathize and empathize with our people – their travails and their aspirations. Finally and most importantly, never tire of dreaming and hoping for our country. As long as the youth envisions a brighter future for our country, we can always rise again.
In closing, I hope I have imparted to you, the young students of Adamson University, a sense of direction with respect to the roles you need to perform in the interest of order and justice. May you never lose sight of your alma mater’s efforts to promote competence and excellence in the community as this mirrors the desire of the Judiciary to provide the gold standard of public service. I urge you to play an active role in nation-building, to become catalysts of change in promoting the Rule of Law, in ensuring the supremacy of the law above individual interests. This is the only way of ensuring that public trust, accountability, and justice within our governmental institutions do not remain mere abstract concepts.
As we repose our trust in you to drive our nation to a place of honor reserved for a great, free, and loving people, know that you are not alone. You will not be alone. My prayers are with you my dear Vincentians. One day, we will achieve justice that is swift and fair to all. Until then, let us not fail to hope. Let us not lose faith in our ability to build strong institutions; institutions that can only be strong if the rule of law is upheld.
Magandang hapon at mabuhay ang kabataang Pilipino!
Know more about CJ Sereno here: https://www.facebook.com/105192112001328/posts/105192462001293/?substory_index=0
