EDITORIAL - Undermining justice

An honest, competent lawyer has to be an idealistic patriot to join the Philippine judiciary these days instead of opting for a lucrative job in the private sector. Apart from accepting lower pay, he will need courage to survive threats to his life. This is a country where people kill journalists bearing bad news, and judges who are simply doing their jobs.

Judge Voltaire Antonio Rosales of the Regional Trial Court of Tanauan, Batangas is the latest casualty. Rosales handled cases involving capital offenses including drug trafficking, and had meted out 14 death sentences mostly for drug-related offenses. His widow Filomena, who is also a lawyer, has made no secret of her suspicion that a drug dealer sent to prison by her husband had ordered the murder. Near noon on June 10, a gunman on a motorcycle had pulled up to the van Rosales was driving as he slowed down for a speed bump. The gunman pumped three bullets into the judge before fleeing.

In the wake of this latest murder, some proposals have been made to protect judges from reprisals. One, from Rosales’ widow, is to institute the jury system. Another is to stop assigning all cases involving capital offenses to special courts such as the one Rosales handled, so there won’t be too much heat on one particular judge. A third proposal is to move court proceedings involving capital offenses to a venue far from the place where the crime was committed, so the judge will not be known personally to the parties involved. Proponents hope this will reduce the possibility of local vendetta.

If the proposals aren’t feasible, the government should at least provide protection to judges whose tasks put them at high risk of physical harm. The most vulnerable are those who handle cases involving organized crimes such as drug trafficking and kidnapping for ransom.

Rosales is the seventh judge to be murdered in the line of duty since 1999, according to Malacañang officials. If this keeps up, the government will be hard-pressed to recruit competent lawyers into the judiciary. And if the perpetrators are not caught, Ro-sales’ murder will further embolden crooks to undermine an already weak criminal justice system.