For the nth time! We need judicial reforms!

I was in Tacloban City over the weekend riding with The Star Touring group when I got a lot of text messages from friends that South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña was hospitalized. As the reports say, Tommy O. was rushed to the hospital after he had chills and a fever last Saturday, perhaps due to an infection, while in a meeting with some barangay captains in Taptap.

 For us who have not had any medical problems, getting chills and a fever is just one of those things. But for Tomas Osmeña who had a stroke in the year 2002 and urinary bladder cancer in 2009, this should not be taken lightly and I’m glad that he was rushed to the hospital just in case. Again, let me just say that this is another wake-up call for Rep. Tomas, for him to slow down on the political rhetoric and give his health a chance.

 Of course, I don’t expect the former Cebu City Mayor to embrace our suggestion, but if he wants to live a little longer, he should work to preserve his health. Just a couple of weeks ago, I too experienced a very high blood pressure for the first time in my life and no sir, I’m giving that episode some serious thought. But more than anything else, we should not only be physically healthy, but spiritually healthy, as well, because our bodies are flesh and spirit. We nourish our bodies too much and forget that our spirit also needs some nourishment. Above all, Tommy O. must also learn to forgive his enemies!

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 The Philippine Star headline yesterday blared “Noy wants corrupt convicted by 2012” and I hope that under his watch, this would become a reality. I have always said that the single biggest problem in this country today isn’t really corruption, but rather the slow-paced justice system. It just takes too long for the honorable men and women of our courts to make a good or bad decision. This is not to mention that the decades-long delays in our criminal justice system favor the criminal. A case in point is the Vizconde massacre which celebrated its 20th year last June 30, 2011.

 Never mind that it took that long for justice to be given, but those supposedly convicted of that crime were all freed by the Supreme Court. How many more cases are still unresolved in many Regional, City or Municipal Courts today? When he was Senate President, the late Marcelo “Noy Celing” Fernan came up with a law for a speedy trial, yet there is nothing speedy in our trials today.

 There is no doubt that we need to overhaul our flawed and corrupt justice system, where more often than not, judges play into the hands of their favorite lawyers, where some so-called “Rogues in Robes” would even copy the entire legal presentation of that favored lawyer to the detriment of justice. It is not just the judiciary, but the entire system. I had once heard of a labor case where a decision was rendered to the employees of a closed establishment. Suddenly this was overturned because the other side used his well-connected “padrino” in Manila.

 Since the 1985 EDSA Revolt, numerous cases were filed against the Marcoses supposedly for ill-gotten wealth, yet none of the Marcoses were jailed for any of the cases filed against them. We finally bagged the biggest fish in the pond when then Pres. Joseph “Erap” Estrada was forced to resign. Yet, when the Supreme Court finally convicted him, then Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in a strange twist of events, pardoned him! Thus the Filipino people were denied the justice they deserve to have been given.

 Now it’s the turn of Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III to seek speedy justice. Let me just say that it can only happen if we made it unconstitutional for lawyers to delay court proceedings for an indefinite period of time. Again, let me repeat what I’ve always maintained, our problem is not corruption but the system that breeds corruption. If and when a corrupt mayor or governor faces corruption charges and in six months that public official is jailed, I guarantee you that corruption will cease to exist.

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 Calling Land Transportation Franchising & Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Regional Director Ahmed Cuizon! A Ms. Cherry Abayan of the Mactan Export Processing Zone Authority (MEPZ) emailed me a complaint about the rampant violation of jeepney drivers that collect P7.50 as a minimum fare. She is requesting that LTFRB sends operatives to stop the practice of these drivers. Let’s see how swiftly my good friend LTFRB Director Cuizon would address this.

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