The 1st Jury Convention at UP
By: Abs Damahan
UP Diliman, Quezon City- The 1st Convention of Jury System of the Philippine held at the National College of Public Administration and Government (NCPAG), UP Diliman on April 28, 2011. This is one of its kind a very successful public forum participated by the officials of government, Local Government Units, Civil society, organizations and as well private sectors.
Public forum is well organized by the group of organizers for this “1st Jury Convention” it’s seemed an attainable movement for cause that would need public support. When I looked at public response for those groups who participated in this forum, there are intensely wanted to change the over 100 years of rotten judicial system of our nation.
An anecdote says in the legal luminaries “Justice delayed and justice denied”, it took several years for pending cases in the court dockets before fiscals, prosecutors and judges can conduct any hearings or can promulgate verdict or judgement for the accused whether guilty or not guilty.
While in the jury system proposal, it would eliminate the delay of the long process of court litigation, would even conduct speedy trial by the jurors its call “Trial by Jury” and “Trial by Grand Jury”.
Why is it necessary that we have to adopt a Jury System in the Philippines? We need the Jury System because we have chosen to have a democratic form of government. In a democratic government without a Jury system, justice becomes a monopoly by powerful government officials. We may call it also as the “Personalized Justice” System, especially by the President who appoints all judges, justices, and prosecutors. It is a “selective” justice system so that only the personal holders of that monopoly can choose whom to, or not, prosecute. In order for you to gain justice, you must be a sup-sup with that controller of justice. It is a recipe for failure of administration by any incumbent in office.
When public officials abuse the power of their office such as acts of corruption, money laundering, ordering extra-judicial killings, or forming death squad to “keep the peace” in their community, they control justice in such a way that they cannot be prosecuted for their abuses.
With the jury system in place, the common people will be able to control on how justice can be fairly and honestly decided through supervision by judges and prosecutors in which the people can independently decide in justice and determine as to the correctness or wrongness of the acts of their public servants.
The Jury Justice System being proposed by Hukuman ng Mamamayan Movement is composed of two bodies. The first body is what shall be called “Grand Jury” and the second shall be called “Trial Jury”.
The composition would be an independent group composed of 12 for “Trial Jury” and 24 for the “Grand Jury” in numbers for the chosen Jurors.
