The Sociology of Jurisprudence

A THESIS

PRESENTED TO

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

COLLEGE OF ARTS

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILLIPINES

Mabini campus, Sta. Mesa, Manila

THE SOCIOLOGY OF JURISPRUDENCE

AN INQUIRY IN THE CRIMINAL LITIGATION IN THE PHILIPPINES: WEALTH, PRESTIGE AND KNOWLEDGE/POWER COMPLEXES

(AN INITIAL EXPLORATION)

SUBMITTED BY:

EMMANUEL S. CALIWAN

ROMA JESSA C. PURPURA

NANNETTE B. GERONA

BS SOCIOLOGY 2009-2010 RESEARCH ABSTRACT

Social stratification is a pervasive term in the discipline of sociology. As sociology study and scrutinizes different kinds and forms of society it looks on how such society functions and interacts not on the contexts of normality but on the contexts of “POWER RELATIONS”. From here enters the sociological analysis of stratification. Taking into account the findings of many sociologists that there is no society, no institution, nor organization within the scope of historical data’s that is not stratified. The researchers focus their attention to the age-old institution of social control what we now call-----THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. In addition, study and analyze its major component the criminal litigation. Moreover, how social stratification affects these branches of the criminal justice system particularly the court. This research aim to prove that our court, through its criminal litigation, is a social construct that is not safe with the dynamics of power relations. Further more we what to expose the truth behind the justice symbol that our country has as a woman blindfolded. Which signify that the justice system we have does not look with the social status one have? However, the contrary is true as you explore the thesis of this research we are proving through the various methodologies that we use that our justice is a TRANSACTIONAL JUSTICE. By applying the Weberian conception and theoretical paradigm of stratification an expounded version of Marxist paradigm of power relation. And of Foucaultian’s concept of knowledge/power complex and of panopticism. We would shed light to this critical and worth venturing field of sociological inquiry

Key terms: Stratification, Power relations, Criminal justice, Litigation, Wealth, Prestige, Knowledge/Power complex, Weber and Foucault, transactional justice.

2 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

A. RATIONAL FOR THE TOPIC

“In a time where lie pervades, telling the truth is a revolutionary thing”

-George Orwell.

Law permeates all realms of social behavior. Its pervasiveness and social significance are felt in all walks of life. In subtle and, at times, not so subtle ways a complex and voluminous set of laws governs our every action. Laws maintain the status quo but also provide for necessary changes. Finally, laws, in particular criminal laws, not only protect private and public interests, but also preserve order. There is no end to ways in which the law has a significant effect upon our lives.

That is the main reason why the sociology of law is a needed lens for analysis. Critically understanding how law operates within the society is the main task of the sociology of law. The sociology of law touches a number of well-established areas of inquiry. Such as values, interaction patterns, ideologies, norms, rules that prescribe the appropriate behavior, nature of legitimate authority, the mechanism of social control, power arrangements and the issues of justice in private and public

3 spheres. However to compartmentalize its critique and analysis it has in the process of its evolution created a specialized subfield called as the sociology of jurisprudence. In this research, we would venture in the specialized subfield of the sociology of law to analyze the issue of justice and power relations in the litigation in the Philippines.

Sociology of jurisprudence is a seemingly new and sacred field in the discipline of sociology (here in the Philippines) for such only, few Filipino sociologists ever step in the boundaries of two of the most distinctive yet overlapping field of the discipline of law and society. (However, what is sociology of jurisprudence and why is it worth venturing with? According to Steven Vago in his book Society and Law, sociology of jurisprudence it is a specialized field within sociology that critically analyzes the law in action compared to law written in books.) Yet there are many and major pressing concerns that both sociologist and those in the legal field should work hand and hand in solving. Social problems pervades our criminal justice system we must accept the fact that change is very badly needed for us to achieve a more humane surroundings and to achieve our goal of giving impartial and real JUSTICE. Such is the major reason why this study is born. Particularly the researcher is very much intrigued on the issue of social and criminological justice that those person inside the criminal justice system experience. In addition, to solve such dilemma the researcher puts forward the sociological notion of stratification and its operation within the justice system. However, studying such complex and multi-disciplinial institution the researcher focus on the most essential of its process and function namely ------LITIGATION.

The thesis argument that we want to present here is that our criminal litigation and its institution the court is pervaded by a certain pathology that makes it powerless in front of people with high social standing (those who possess wealth,

4 prestige and knowledge power complex or as the language of the researchers power dynamics.). Powerless in a sense that it favors the demand of those in high status our blind concerning the crimes they perpetrated. In addition, in the process we want to prove that the symbol of justice that we adopt is wrong and creates an illusion in the eyes of the public. That the institution of justice is just and impartial but the contrary is true.

Working under the tradition of sociology and its offspring cultural studies the researchers aims to examine litigation in terms of litigation practices and its relation to power, its goal is to expose power relationships and examine how its dynamics influence and shape court litigation.

By utilizing secondary data analysis, three months of court observation (and analysis of symbolic process within it) and interview of 200 Manila City Jail inmates we have done this initial exploration like a detective in search of truth.

Hope this may serve as a fuel for more discourse in the field of Society and Law particularly that of the Sociology of Jurisprudence for the betterment of our future.

B.THEORITICAL FRAME WORK

"The irrationality of a thing is not an argument against its existence, rather, a condition of it."

-Friedrich Nietzsche.

5 Looking in a general sociology textbook one of the most essential topic for whoever is interested or is taking up a sociology class is the chapter on social stratification. For such one of the key factor for a critical analysis of society is the concept of social stratification. In this research the focus of the study is within the institution of social control (particularly that of litigation) and the power that stratification holds within it.

Max Weber: Wealth, Prestige and Power. 1

(A Weberian conception of the criminal justice system.)

One of the most influential sociological theorists of the classical age is Max Weber. According to him, Marx’s assertion that economic factors are important in understanding individual and group behavior is correct. Yet he emphasized that no one factor was sufficient for defining people’s location within the class structure. And how this class structure affects his behavior and his social surrounding behavior. As such, he developed within the Marxian tradition a much more holistic and complex multi dimensional approach to social stratification that focused on the interplay of wealth, prestige and power in determining a person’s class position, and how this factor affects the different institution a person belongs to. For Weber these three elements do not only determine your place in the stratum of society but also the behavior of the society towards you. To enumerate according to him to him the first of this elements is WEALTH he defines it as the value of all persons or

1 SOURCES: SOCIOLOGY IN OUR TIMES THE ESSENTIALS 3RD EDITION BY DIANA KENDALL pg. 202-203.

6 family’s economic assets, including income, personal property and income- producing property. To note when you have this wealth they are able to purchase expensive consumer items, control other people’s opportunities and monopolize others. Secondly, Weber puts forward the concept of PRESTIGE this is a respect or regard with which others regard a person or status position. Fame, respect, honor and esteem are the most common forms of prestige. A person who has a high level of prestige, which is assumed to receive deferential and respectful treatment to others.

Last on Weber’s notion is POWER he defines it as the ability of people or groups to achieve their goal despite opposition from others. The powerful shape society in accordance with their own interest and directs the actions of others.

So from here we enter the main reason for the researcher using this sociological perspective in their study because as Weber is theorizing social stratification is a very powerful factor on every aspect of social life and organization even the criminal justice system is pervade by this social force. It even enter the seemingly profess institution of impartiality. For as Weberian theory says wealth, prestige and power determine the behavior of the institution and the individuals inside it.

Power is not as rational as we think it is. It is not just a simple task of achieving or acquiring it. Michel Foucault a French postmodern theorist shed light on such a vogue notion of power acquisition and determines how this power affects the behavior of the institution of social control.

7 FOUCAULT ON POWER 2

MICHEL FOUCAULT's understanding of power changes between his early work on institutions (Madness and Civilization, The Birth of the Clinic, Discipline and Punish) and his later work on sexuality and governmentality. In the early work, Foucault sometimes gives a sense that power somehow inheres in institutions themselves rather than in the individuals that make those institutions function. Of course, what Foucault explores in those books is how the creation of modern disciplines, with their principles of order and control, tends to "disindividualize" power, making it seem as if power inheres in the prison, the school, the factory, and so on. The Panopticon becomes Foucault's model for the way other institutions function: the Panopticon "is an important mechanism, for it automatizes and disindividualizes power. Power has its principle not so much in a person as in a certain concerted distribution of bodies, surfaces, lights, gazes; in an arrangement whose internal mechanisms produce the relation in which individuals are caught up" ( Discipline 202 ). Indeed, Bentham's goal was to create an architectural idea that, ultimately, could function on its own: it did not matter who exactly operated the machine: "Any individual, taken almost at random, can operate the machine: in the absence of the director, his family, his friends, his visitors, even his servants" (Discipline 202). The idea of discipline itself similarly functions as an abstraction of the idea of power from any individual: "'Discipline' may be identified neither with an institution nor with an apparatus; it is a type of power, a modality for its exercise, comprising a whole set of instruments, techniques, procedures, levels of application, targets; it is a physics' or an 'anatomy' of power, a technology" ( Discipline 215 ). Bureaucracies, like disciplines, contribute to the process of disindividuation since they promote the facelessness of the bureaucrat ("I'm just doing my job"; "I'm just a cog in the machine") and tend to continue functioning even after major revolutions. (After the fall of Nazi Germany, for example, the general bureaucratic structure, and most of its workers, remained in place.)

The effect of this tendency to disindividualize power is the perception that power resides in the machine itself (the "panoptic machine"; the "technology" of power) rather than in its operator. For this reason, one can finish reading Foucault's Discipline and Punish with the paranoid feeling that we are powerless before such an effective and diffuse form of social control. Foucault makes clear in his later work, however, that power ultimately does inhere in individuals, including those that are surveilled or punished. It is true that contemporary forms of disciplinary organization allow ever larger number of people to be controlled by ever smaller numbers of "specialists"; however, as Foucault explains in "The Subject and Power," "something called Power, with or without a capital letter, which 2Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Foucault: On Power." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. .

8 is assumed to exist universally in a concentrated or diffused form, does not exist. Power exists only when it is put into action" (219). Foucault therefore makes clear that, in itself, power "is not a renunciation of freedom, a transference of rights, the power of each and all delegated to a few" (220). Indeed, power is not the same as violence because the opposite pole of violence "can only be passivity" (220). By contrast, "a power relationship can only be articulated on the basis of two elements which are each indispensable if it is really to be a power relationship: that 'the other' (the one over whom power is exercised) be thoroughly recognized and maintained to the very end as a person who acts; and that, faced with a relationship of power, a whole field of responses, reactions, results, and possible inventions may open up" (220). Power always entails a set of actions performed upon another person’s actions and reactions. Although violence may be a part of some power relationships, "In itself the exercise of power is not violence" (220); it is "always a way of acting upon an acting subject or acting subjects by virtue of their acting or being capable of action" (220).

Such is what Foucault says about power that it determines the behavior of the social surrounding and those people who occupy that place. The institution has the power of its own that of the panopticon but a person holding a power can have a panopticon of its own(in the case of MCJ those Mayores, inmate, can command discipline and order the other inmates) another point that Foucault is raising is that power is not just merely acquired with domination and fear alone. In his book entitled: POWER/KNOWLEDGE SELECTED INTERVIEW AND OTHER WRITINGS. He theorizes the rise of power due to acquiring knowledge, which he calls as Knowledge/Power Complex. This concept plays a vital role in the research court observation.

C.CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK (The dynamics of Philippine litigation)

9 The research revolves under the analysis of court litigation and the power dynamics that operates within its boundaries. In the first figure, that precedes the conceptual framework the researcher denotes symbols such as W (wealth), P (prestige) and K/P COMPLEX (knowledge power complex). These three elements consist the social dynamics, which operates, pervades and affect the Court litigation in the Philippines. Supported by evident proliferation of literary materials such as short stories, novels, documentary and films (be it fictional or real life)that depicts how this Dynamics of Power really affects the course of the litigation process.

As the figure below shows the structure of justice (such as courts) is pervaded (signified by those arrows encircling it) by the Power Dynamics (wealth prestige, power and knowledge/power complex) this said elements directly affects the litigation. As such the tripartite elements of wealth, prestige and knowledge/power complex operating in the litigation shows a dynamic of power relations. When this do happen a new form of institution as the researcher have seen would be created, this institution as the researchers coined is TRANSACTIONAL JUSTICE.

The determined form of institution as the researchers termed as transactional justice. This new form of justice institution as the researchers conceptualized is a justice that is for sale, afraid and powerless in the face of opposing force especially those who hold wealth and who are powerful (and prestigious). This new emerging form of justice is pathological in nature yet common people cannot see the truth for they are disillusioned to believe that our justice is blind as represented by its symbol.

10 In the terminologies of Anthony Giddens, this new institution in its structural form can be dubbed as agency and structure integration3. The researchers see that not only the institution of litigation changes in favor of the powerful but also people part of the said institution. Their psychological make-up is in the process determined by the power dynamics in operation. In symbolic relations the people’ psychological make-up makes them blind, mute and deaf in relation to a particular litigant who has the tripartite element or either on of the element. Yet they still adopt the symbol of justice for them to safely hide in their the human evil they create.

Figure 1.1 The theoretical implications and operations of the dynamics of power relations in the criminal court.

3 In Marx’s terminologies, this can be seen as a dialectic process for the institution dialectically affects the individual member or the other way around the individual affects the institution.

11 CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

COURTS OF JUSTICE K/P COMPLEX

ORGANIZATION THAT HOUSES THE

LITIGATION P

INSTITUTIONAL BEHAVIOR

In addition, creates a new form of institution… transactional justice

(IN THE LANGUAGE OF GIDDENS “AGENCY AND STRUCTURE INTEGRATION”)

Figure 1.2 Conceptual framework. The intervention and interaction of types of lawyers with power dynamics.

JUSTICE SYSTEM

LAWYERS/LITIGANTS 12 L FAVORE D PRIVATE POWER

WEALTH COURT JURISPRUDE LITIGATION NCE PRESTIGE

KNOWLEDG E/POWER EXCLUDE COMPLEX D TRANSACTIO PAO NAL JUSTICE

THE OPERATION OF POWER DYNAMICS INSIDE A COURT LITIGATION AND HOW THROUGH ITS INTERVENTION WITH JURISPRUDENCE, TRANSACTIONAL JUSTICE IS BORN. The lawyer in the conceptual framework embodies the exclusion or inclusion the dynamics of power in the court litigation.

The conceptual framework discusses the main thesis argument of the research. That the dynamics of power relations as embodied in wealth, prestige and knowledge/power complex. As it operates within the institution of court, affects and determine the institutional behavior. In addition, in the process brings life to a new form of justice we categorically call the TRANSACTIONAL JUSTICE. This

13 invalidates the illusionize meaning of our justice symbol as blind in relation to the status one holds within the society. This also subjects the court as a social construct that is powerless in the face of power dynamics which operates within it realm. The concept that can be also seen as an institution pervaded by pathology of transactions.

The institution of court litigation is not really just for as a social construct it is pervaded by power dynamics as shown in the figure where a structure is encircled by arrows with corresponding sign. In addition, as this dynamics pervade the court a new form of justice is born. This as the research calls the transactional justice system.

To put it more vividly the elements of power dynamics includes or favors those with private lawyers yet it excludes those with PAO lawyers. In the litigation, the said exclusion or inclusion determines whether a litigant wins or loses in the battle of life and incarceration. Clearly, the researchers noted that the jurisprudence in this country is pro-powerful and unjust. Yet they hide in the veil of justice symbol that denotes blindness in relation to power dynamics. This in the process creates pathology in the criminal justice system yet as people accept that this is the realities in life yet do nothing a new form of institution of justice arise--- the transactional justice.

D.STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

"Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live."

-Robert Kennedy.

14 Generally, the researchers want to give answers and explanation to a seemingly new yet not, phenomenon of the TRANSACTIONAL JUSTICE. The general problem is----How does the sociological concept of wealth, prestige and knowledge/power complex operates, affects and determines the behavior of the institution of social control, the dynamics of which is the Philippine litigation?

According to Charles Wright Mills4, “No social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, of history, and of their intersections within a society, has completed its intellectual journey.” In this regards the researchers would like to give explanations and answers to a long-standing question on the field of law and society, particularly that of the sociology of jurisprudence 5 . A comparative study of legal systems legal doctrines and legal institutions as a social phenomenon, and considers law as it actually is --- the law in action as distinguished from the law as it appears in books.

Coming down with the specifics and making this research a workable one, the researchers made workable and particular problems such as:

What is the difference when you have a public or private lawyer?

Does being a celebrity, a politician or a public figure affect the three processes enumerated?

How does the court litigation proceed?

4 It is quite essential to site that C. Wright Mills have also written a book discussing the issue of power relations and high status, how this determine the behavior of the institution. The book is entitled as The Power Elite.

5 Source: Law and Society By Steven Vago 4th edition

15 What are symbolic relations6 that can be observed in court litigation?

E. IMPORTANCE OR SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The most massive characters are seared with scars."

- Khalil Gibran.

Sociology is a discipline that does not only study a social phenomenon to understand it but also to change it. Such is the reason why the concept of PRAXIS is very pervasive to all of those who take sociology seriously. For this particular research/study, the researchers deem this study of great importance not only to the discipline but to all of the society for the following reason:

For the discipline of sociology and that of theorizing in the Philippines few are ever written in the sociological jurisprudence section of our field may this fuel more of them.

To Filipino sociologist and those of the legal profession we do not have the vanity of time to convene and hold conferences to talk about things, which are of great importance to both of our field. May this paper serve as a sounding call for us to convene sit in a same room and talk about the problems of our society that need our help and expertise to arrive at a solution.

For the academe may this study help open your eyes to the larger picture of life and not only that of a normative and financially rewarding things in life.

6 Symbolic relations is a term that I arrived when in the process of observing class or group behavior that can be implied by close reading of their interaction which holds essential and critical social facts.

16 For the non-governmental organizations, which watch over the criminal justice system vigorously, may this study be your guide to seek real justice. Watch over the institution lobby a change be vigilant!

For our honorable congressional representative and senators may this study fuel your minds to bring about change to our existing laws for the past and right resolutions of criminal cases. We need laws that would never look at your social standing!

For those with careers in the criminal justice reflects with this study, We hope this would serve as an opening roar for you to wake up and bring about change and medicine for the pathology we call the transactional justice.

Moreover, for the public be informed, asked questions serve as a concerned, critical and wise community. Everything written here may also happen to you. Don’t be victimized.

To me personally who is hooked with criminal justice, forensic psychology and that of the criminal minds this is a breath of the real and the true. A way of preparation. A battle tactic one needs to create a better future.

F. SCOPE, LIMITATION AND DELIMITATION

“Not everything in this world can be cover even by a great and bright detective.”

-Senior Special Agent Jason Gideon, BAU FBI (criminal minds)

17 As the above-mentioned quote says not everything can be done in, a certain study for all of us has a different constrains of our own. For this particular study, I hope to limit our limitation yet I can’t do this on my own so a line you are stabilized so that certain focuses that are needed in every human endeavor is needed.

The following are some of the delimitation of this study and its reason/s:

This study can be more complete if the study can cover all of the varied and complex court and correctional institution of the Philippines, yet due to limited budget and time and the places to go are to far from the researchers’ resident, the researcher focus their attention to the manila city jail- male and female ward.

Secondly resources in the field of sociology in particular that of sociological jurisprudence are few and rare so a an in-depth theoretical analysis can not be given, to prove this point only one book in the sociology of law is available in Ateneo de Manila main library .

Thirdly, we are on focus in one of the most difficult field of study for such this deals with a security institution and that of the ever-guarded institution of the judiciary. A legal and bureaucratic process should be observed in studying this kind of institution.

LIMITATION

For the research limitation the following are given.

This study focused on the litigation as shown in Manila-RTC and observations are focused on the symbolics of power relations/ power dynamics in the said court.

18 The focused of the observational comparison are done between the differences of having a PAO from a PRIVATE lawyer.

Only three (in some point a twin forth) factors are very much given emphasis they are wealth, prestige and knowledge/power complex as key issues in the power dynamics as shown in the 200 interview sample.

For the secondary data analysis, we compartmentalize ourselves with three well- known cases such as the alabang boys’ case, Estrada case and the Santos case.

SCOPE

A horse for it to run straight needs an eye foil so that it can focus. True to statement a focus is important for the study to succeed, here is the scope of the study for it to run straight and smoothly.

The study focuses’ on the criminal litigation in the Philippines. The power dynamics that operates within its realm and in the process affects the institution. We also focus on the emerging form of justice that is given to people with high social standing a justice we critically call as TRANSACTIONAL JUSTICE.

E. OPERATIONAL DEFINITION

1. Sociological jurisprudence - a comparative study of legal systems legal doctrines and legal institutions as a social phenomenon, and considers law as it actually is --- the law in action as distinguished from the law as it appears in books. In this research, we used this to show and analyze the justice in the Philippines.

2. Justice- involves equal punishment for identical offenses and equal rewards to identical merit

19 3. Criminal Justice System- is defined as the machinery of the state or government, which enforces the rules of conduct necessary to protect life and property and maintain peace and order.

4. Courts- are institution vested with judicial power that serves as the final arbiter of all disputes or issues involving violations of criminal law.

5. Prisons/Corrections- are security institutions where inmates are hold until a verdict is achieved concerning one’s case.

6. Litigation- the process in judicial institution of finding whether the criminally accused is guilty or not guilty of a criminal lawsuit filed against him or her.

7. Imprisonment- the process of deterring a person due to a criminal case filed.

8. WEALTH- on Weberian definition it is the value of all persons or family’s economic assets, including income, personal property and income-producing property. In this research, we have look on this element of stratification in terms of the economic status one has and how this affects the litigation process.

9. PRESTIGE -on Weberian theory this is a respect or regard with which a person or status position is regarded by others. Fame, respect, honor and esteem are the most common forms of prestige. In the research this is operationalized in the secondary data analysis of the Judy Ann Santos case and the Estrada case.

10. POWER- on Weber terminology he defines it as the ability of people or groups to achieve their goal despite opposition from others. The powerful

20 shape society in accordance with their own interest and directs the actions of others.

11. Knowledge/Power complex- According to Michel Foucault’ definition power is greatly associated with the knowledge one have in a particular setting in his explanation the rise of such discipline as psychoanalysis is due to a different knowledge they have as for the masses. The researchers took his major concept and make some revision to adjust it to this study to denote knowledge of one own litigation makes one powerful in a court of law. As the conceptual framework shows the inclusion or exclusion of this particular element as embodied by the proceedings if one has a private or PAO lawyer.

12. Grassroot analysis – a research proposed method of analyzing social control phenomenon that are heavily guarded by persons in power who “subjugates”7 any attempts to critically analyze a phenomenon that they consider as only for those in legal profession.

13. Dynamics 8 of litigation in the Philippines – a term that I arrived by considering the elements which operates (wealth, prestige and knowledge power complex.) within the criminal justice system.

14. an initial exploration - a term which denotes the social situation of the research at hand for such this research considered a first move on a vast

7 Is a term I adopted from Michel Foucault’s theory on The Archeology of Knowledge, in here he critic’s western intellectual history and culture. he uses the metaphor of “subjugated” knowledge to denote knowledge that is considered by those experts to be nothing of importance. Retrieved A SINGING SOMETHING Womanist reflections on Anna Julia Cooper by Karen Baker-Fletcher.

8 I have to thank Prof. Justin Nicholas for his valuable suggestion to use the term dynamics when referring to elements of the Weberian and Foucaultian sociology that operates within the litigation process. (the phenomenon we are looking at.)

21 theoretical project I am planning to undergo under the subfield of sociology of jurisprudence especially here in the Philippines where only few ever step within the almost sacred field in the intersection of law and society. This also considers the fact that one cannot at a certain degree isolate a single part of the justice system for they all has in one point interact and overlaps.

15. Transactional justice – is a new and emerging form of criminal justice that favors those with high status (those who has wealth, prestige and knowledge/power complex.) in this research this concept is initial introduce yet not thoroughly explored. For the researchers focused on the operation of power dynamics in the litigation.

16. Panopticon - in this research this term originally by Jeremy Bentham, denotes that when one has acquires knowledge power complex as embodied by the private lawyer. A litigant can prepare tactics and can oversee the course of ones criminal case.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.

-- Joan Baez

A.RELATED LITERATURE

22 A.1FOREIGN LITERATURE

9Criminal Injustice: Racism in the Criminal Justice System is a book that explores the theory of racism and the law by attempting to explain the phenomena of racism in one area of the law, the criminal justice system. It explores the myriad factors that contribute to racism in this context, including the role of media in perpetuating racial stereo types about Blacks, the policing of First Nations, anti- racist initiatives in probation services, Canada's human rights record, and the meaning of systemic racism, to describe but a few of the themes running throughout the book.

The book is also unusual in its approach in that it engages the reader in a discussion which exposes false beliefs about the non-racist nature of the criminal justice system in Canada and elsewhere. The book not only challenges the reader to re- think firmly held beliefs about the nature of (criminal) justice and equality, but also calls for a practical application of the theoretical knowledge in an effort to eradicate racism in the criminal justice system.

What makes the book particularly dynamic is that it is not written by a single author, nor does it focus on a single country's problem with racism in its criminal justice system. Instead, it is an anthology containing sixteen chapters, contributed by a group of writers dealing with the issue of racism in the criminal justice system in countries as diverse as Britain, the United States, Australia, the South Pacific, and Canada. The book's primary focus, however, is on the existence and eradication of racism in the Canadian criminal justice system. The comparative approach taken in the book with respect to the experiences of racism in other countries serves to

9 Carol A. Aylward "Criminal Injustice: Racism in the Criminal Justice System". Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal. FindArticles.com. 06 Dec, 2009. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb039/is_2_33/ai_n28889333/

23 heighten the reader's awareness of the global nature of racism and it affords those interested in social change as well as those in a position to effect social change an opportunity to explore solutions developed elsewhere to address the problem.

The book begins appropriately enough with an introduction to the Canadian criminal justice system, an essential component for readers unfamiliar with it. The fact that one is not legally trained, however, is not a great impediment to the usefulness of the book as a tool for social change, since the authors, while academic in their approach, seem to have written with a broader audience in mind than is generally the case when dealing with such a topic.

What follows is a summary of some of the many themes I found most valuable in this interesting book. The overview of the Canadian criminal justice system contained in Chapter 1, as mentioned, is a particularly useful tool. The issue of media images of Blacks contained in Chapter 2 is valuable in understanding the role of media in the perpetuation of racial stereotypes. The author of The Color of Crime. External and Internal Images asks the question "How is it that Blacks are widely seen as symbols of success and symbols of deviance?" What accounts for these conflicting perceptions of Blacks and Blackness? The author goes on to explain that, "At the core, the [media] presentation of Blackness is one of contradiction. Images of Black deviance are promoted alongside images of Black achievement -- sometimes they overlap." In an attempt to explain this phenomenon, the author notes that the media "portrays neutral and in some cases positive images of Blacks, [however] these images cannot compete with the overwhelmingly negative characterizations." The author explores these issues with focus groups of young black men and women and sets the stage for the other authors of this anthology who attempt to tackle the question of "how the law can be used more effectively to address racial harms against Blacks."

24 Other significant chapters include Racism in Justice: Perceptions Commission on Systemic Racist in the Ontario Criminal Justice System; Racial Discrimination in Law: An International Perspective, and First Nations Peoples and Law Enforcement: Community Perspectives on Police Response, Self- Government and Criminal Justice: Issues and Realities (to name a few). This body of work offers the reader statistical, social scientific, anecdotal and other data regarding the treatment of Blacks, First Nations, and other people of colour in the criminal justice system in Canada and abroad, on the premise that acknowledgement of the existence of racism in the system must first occur before concrete steps can be taken to eradicate it.

Nor is the issue of gender ignored. For example, in Chapter 11, the author pushes the reader to consider the impact of colonialism on the traditional (egalitarian) role of First Nations women in Aboriginal societies. The author proceeds on the assumption that the solution to the over representation of Aboriginal peoples in the criminal justice system and the systemic discrimination in that system requires the "recreation of Aboriginal justice systems." She notes that over representation of Aboriginal peoples in the criminal justice system is not the only problem Aboriginal people having with that system. She rejects the notion that mere accommodation made within the existing justice system will ameliorate the "experience of injustice that Aboriginal men and women experience within the Canadian justice system."

The most significant contribution this book makes to the genre of critical analysis is in the area of alternatives to the existing system and recommendations for a more egalitarian one. These alternatives and recommendations include such things as sentencing reform; Aboriginal systems of justice; approaches that allow for changes in laws and policy as well as changes in society; coalition building

25 between oppressed groups; police reform; police accountability; more minority recruitment in all areas including the legal profession, judiciary, police institutions, court administration; and speaking out against racism, and more.

The book does suffer somewhat from the failure, inherent in the nature of many anthologies, to form a unifying thread with respect to the themes under discussion. On the whole, however, this anthology succeeds better than most in this regard. I would recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in practical ways to eradicate racism in the criminal justice system. The book's major failing is that it focuses too heavily on the front end of the criminal justice system, policing, and not enough on the many other loci for racism within the justice system, such as the judiciary and the legal profession, including the first gatekeeper of the system, legal education. It is, however, a refreshing and unique read. It not only contributes to a greater understanding of the role that racism plays in the Canadian criminal justice system, but offers workable solutions to the problem.

Relation to the study:

In this particular study done by Canadian Ethnic Studies Association, they focused on race issue in relation to the criminal litigation in their country. As such, phenomenons like this have pervaded them since the beginning of the history of colonization. Considering the fact that Canada have been a white dominated country and the majority (in relation to power) are whites such injustice can be seen. This is related in the current study for such it proves that power dynamics pervade the justice system in different country in different form due mostly with cultural relativism.

A.2 LOCAL LITERATURE

26 10According to prof., Monsod the Philippine justice system is already corrupted due to its current state where the rich and famous get away with their criminal liabilities by paying their way out. She sited for example the issues surrounding the “ALABANG BOYS” who allegedly bribe a prosecutor to dismiss their case and run away from the case related with high drug pushing. And in the process, the two departments that should work hand and hand in solving cases became enemies the DOJ versus the PDEA.

11IT MAY take some time before the debates end in reaction to the much anticipated landmark ruling on the first criminal trial involving a former President of the Republic. Ousted president Joseph Ejercito Estrada was found guilty of plunder, but was acquitted on the perjury charge. His co-accused, son Jose ‘Jinggoy’ and lawyer Edward S. Serapio were also acquitted of plunder.

Beyond the verdict, however, thought should be given on how the trial was handled by the Sandiganbayan, the special court that has jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases involving graft and other offenses committed by public officials and employees.

Court observers agree that while the court tried very hard to ensure fairness throughout the proceedings, it became lenient to former President Estrada — in many instances to a fault. In fact, Estrada is now headed back to his Tanay residence, where he has been staying for the last three years, instead of Muntinlupa, where he is supposed to go after being convicted.

The Estrada case thus puts in the spotlight once again how the justice system can become so helpless in the face of a powerful accused. Indeed, the proceedings that were highly politicized became mournfully drawn out, clogged up as it was in part with numerous court-granted perks for Estrada that would make ordinary inmates weep.

Veteran criminal lawyer Mario Ongkiko says, though, that all the special considerations, even for a former president, set a bad precedent in the justice system. “Nagkaroon ng

10 Taken from: Q-TV news segment entitled ANALYSIS by Prof. Solita Monsod. With the title, Transactional justice. As the readers can note from her coinage of the term transactional justice that the researchers have adopted our same term but with a revise and a much critical and sociological definition.

11 Guilty! But special concessions for accused show flawed system. by Karen Tiongson-Mayrina Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 ·

27 special treatment,” he says. “Now you can expect other accused of prominent stature to ask for some privileges. It’s tailoring the penal system to suit the needs of the accused.”

This particular report explores how a prestigious, powerful and wealthy litigant like the former president Estrada can down play and manipulate the behavior of the court towards him.

Yet this is not only a single issue reflected here but also the real state of our justice system that favors the powerful. As the article says “thus puts in the spotlight once again how the justice system can become so helpless in the face of a powerful accused”.

B.RELATED STUDIES

B.1 FOREIGN STUDIES

12During the past decade, there has been growing international interest in the topic of wrongful conviction and its serious implications. As in other jurisdictions, Canada has seen several high-profile cases of wrongful conviction that have led to an increased recognition of the fallibility of the criminal justice process. However, despite increased media attention to the issue, corresponding academic literature on the problem has been limited in this country. This article begins by reviewing the literature on the causes of wrongful conviction and uses examples from Canadian cases as illustrations. Following this, through qualitative interviews with five wrongly convicted Canadians, the article examines some long-term effects of a wrongful imprisonment on individuals and

12Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Vol. 21, No. 3, 224-249 (2005) DOI: 10.1177/1043986205278627 Criminal Injustice Understanding the Causes, Effects, and Responses to Wrongful Conviction in Canada Myriam S. Denov Kathryn M. Campbell University of Ottawa

28 T

their families both during incarceration and following their release. Finally, government responses to the issue are discussed, illustrating their limitations and their relevance for criminal justice policy and practice.

B.2 LOCAL STUDIES

13The Philippines is a country caught in the transition from the traditional mode and modernity. Much of the country has already adapted the modern, typically Western, way of living evident in the different institutions established in these areas. Yet they are still many who adhere to the traditional way of living or straddle in between these two modes. I examine this in the context of social control and punishment in the Philippines. I examine why some indigenous forms, if any, still prevail. I examine this and its implication to the society.

This research by Abigail Orbeta from UP, Diliman shed light to the history and forms of indigenous form of social control. According to her paper, the indigenous form of social control is transactional in nature for you can always pay whatever indemnities you have done to the other party. Still with the

13 THE PREVALENCE OF THE INDIGENOUS FORMS OF SOCIAL CONTROL AND PUNISHMENT IN THE PRESENT DAY PHILIPPINESABIGAIL M. ORBETA UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES, DILIMAN

29 research people with high social standing like the datus who are exempted by laws to be punished by wrong done. This is in one-way related to a new and emerging form of justice in the Philippines, the transactional justice.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

Truth can never be reached by just listening to the voice of an authority.

-- Francis Bacon, quoted from Michael Taylor, "Francis Bacon Secret Societies"

The above quotation reflects the sentiments of the current research for the sociological study of jurisprudence and that of the criminal justice system. We mostly deal with what the authority dictates us to do and believe, yet being oriented to be critical and analytical of the system the sociological research should at one hand do research like this one to asserts the claim of a true scientific and mass oriented study.

A.)SETTING OF THE STUDY

30 This study is done in the city of Manila. Particular institutions studied for the analysis of the phenomenon are the following:

REGIONAL TRIAL COURT BRACH 10 AND BRANCH 15

For the observational analysis, I relied heavily with my three months court observation on these particular branches.

MANILA CITY JAIL – MALE AND FEMALE, Sta. Cruz

For our interview, we are concentrated in his particular place because they are open for the intrusion of student who is undergoing research.

Another point is that one of the researchers has done his learning exposure in this place.

B.) TYPE OF RESEARCH

In many respect, the study of the criminal justice system, its process, organization and behavior in relation to the elements of Weberian stratification exemplifies the study of other social issues. For complex issues such as this one we are using the exploratory method. Exploratory method for such during the researchers library research we found out that only few research are ever written on the field of sociology of jurisprudence.

C.) RESEARCH DESIGN

This research study is employing a research triangulation a research design that uses multiple methods to study one research question. Influenced by forensic psychology and the series Criminal minds the research wish to make this study a

31 research ladder for further study in the field of Philippine sociology of jurisprudence as such we utilize those possible research methods.

D.) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES

Method of sampling

This research employed a purposive sampling of 200 inmates14 detained in the BJMP (Bureau of Jail Management and Penology). Run facilities to get a descriptive statistics on the difference of having a private lawyer compared to a PAO lawyer (Public Attorney’s Office.) In relation to the litigation process some would say that taking data or information with the inmates would not be a reliable method for such they really do not know how the justice systems. (In particular the litigation process works) However, actually the researchers stand that they who are the primary “actors”15 of this phenomenon can shed light to the realities of life that the research cannot get from the said experts.16 . The samples given are as follows:

14 The sampling is done in a way that the researchers only give criteria on the subjects (inmates) we want to interview while the paralegal office took care of bringing the chosen subjects inside the office.

15 “Actors” is a term borrowed from Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical sociology.

16 Some say that to get reliable data’s, lawyers or those in the legal profession are the once we need to interview but the researcher are pushing for a grass root sociological analysis of the said phenomenon.

32 1. 100 male inmates in Manila City Jail (MCJ) in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

2. 100 female inmates in Manila City Jail (MCJ) in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

Observational method

To betterly, understand the dynamics of litigation process in the Philippines and its impact to the institutional behavior (agency and structure) of the litigation this research employs the observational method. One of the researchers does this when he serves as a paralegal and IWDs intern in the Manila city jail – male. The said researcher used to attend court hearings with JO3 Godofredo Eder (under the Court Reaction Unit, MCJ). The said participant observation is done for 3 months every Tuesday and Friday from 8 -12 am (August-October 2009)

Secondary Data Analysis

To put the phenomenon on its proper and much understandable perspective the researcher have decided to utilize a secondary data analysis of well-known cases in the Philippines that have been impartial on its cases because of the dynamics of power relations. The following cases that we have analyzed are:

The Erap Estrada case, as presented by the PCIJ (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.)

The Judy Ann Santos TAX evasion case. As presented by the ABS-CBN research.

The Alabang boy’s case as presented by the inquirer.

E.) RESPONDENTS AND CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING

The respondents for the research are inmates from manila city jail –male and female ward. Who are purposively selected from the inmates’ population. The

33 factor the research consider as pertinent to the research is the lawyer classification of inmates (particularly if your lawyer are pao or private.) We requested a 50-50 rule, which means half of the respondents, should come from the PAO and half from private.

The respondents are provided by the paralegal office of manila city jail mindful of the criteria given by the researchers (lawyer classification 50 PAO and %) private.). The respondents are brought inside the office where the researchers are staying.

TYPES OF DATA

C.1 Primary Data

-Structured interview with 200inmates.

-observation on the MCJ facilities

-Court observation.

-descriptive statistics. Of the interview

C.2 Secondary Data

- Reports by PCIJ, done concerning the evicted presidents case. (The Estrada case.)

-filed and cases and news clippings of the Judy Ann and alabang boys case.

DATA GATHERING TECHNIQUES

1. Interview ( thru the use of the interview schedule17 )

17 The sample of the interview schedule can be seen in the annex.

34 2. Observation

3. Secondary data analysis ( investigative reports and journalistic news) analysis

CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION, INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE DATA

“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.”

Soren Kierkegaard

Court observation on litigation (focus on the symbolic interaction)

August 25,2009( 8:00-12:00 am morning trial)

This is the first time that I joined the escort reaction unit (the division in MCJ assigned to bring inmates in Manila city hall-RTC and MeTC’s) under the supervision of a veteran jail officer JO3 Godofredo Eder. His been with the unit for nine years and going. In there I observed how courts culture presides. The researcher has witnessed two arraignments and a pre-trial. I have learned that arraignments are the first process an inmate would undergo inside the court. An arraignment is basically a process where the litigant is told briefly of the case filed, the complainant and ask if he can provide his own lawyer if he cannot the court

35 would assign a PAO lawyer in his behalf. Also in arraignment is where the litigant is asked of his plea whether guilty or not guilty. During the said proceedings the researcher have noticed something a that almost all of the answers concerning the court query are facilitated by the lawyer in fact for the spam of my observation only the lawyers and the judge and court administrator are the ones talking. The inmates are silent actors in the said scene. He is only recognized during the calling of the court attendance.

But all in all the court observation is both enjoyable, exiting and at some point question and doubt rises. I’m looking forward to the next court session I will observe.

August 28, 2009(8:00-12:00 am morning trial)

Second day of my court observation, the court proceedings started with the ecumenical prayer of the court where all are asked to stand and after wards the clerk of the court would ask everybody to sit and be silent during the duration of the hearing. Followed by the court clerk, doing the roll calls for the attendance of the litigants yet I noticed that the inmate/litigant is only identified with the case number and not the full name while on the other hand the complainants are clearly identified with the name. The researcher witnessed three-pre trial and a trial. The usual court procedure, it start with the ecumenical prayer and the singing of the national anthem, case numbers are read one by one the litigants and the complainant are called for the attendance if either18 the litigant or the complainant are not present another case no. is called and if both of them are present the court litigation continue. However, I observed something a motion of a kind done by a

18 The fact is the litigant(inmates ) are always present while the complainant are mostly absent this is another dimension why the litigation are always delayed a tactic mostly employed by knowledgeable and affluent complainant.

36 defense lawyer regarding his client wherein he requested the court for a fast trial for his client quoting the speedy trial provision under the law. If this is possible as a legal tactic why during my stay in MCJ-male as a intern under the paralegal and IWDS division of the jail the most complaint I received is that for almost 6 year of litigation only once a year does’ the majority19 of the inmates receive a complete20 trial.

A break is given for the court session during which I done my questioning. ( One thing more to remember during a court litigation spectator inside the court should remain silent and only the judge, the lawyers and the court clerk are allowed to talk, people are only allowed to talk if the judge would asked them pertinent questions.). Whose the lawyer and whose the litigant the researcher is given answers and found out the lawyer are private and the litigant come for a affluent family in manila.

October 8, 2009 ( 8:00-12:00 am morning trial) 21

My last day for my court observation, still the proceedings started with the usual procedure prayer, anthem and the case number calling. But this particular day as I have been observing for three months now I have clearly noticed a recurrent observation of behavioral patterns inside the court. During the span of the

19 This is the reason why most of the inmates asked help from NGO like Caritas so that they can be help regarding their trial.

20 Complete trial means that during the day that the litigation is scheduled it most proceed as planed not reseted for another sched.

21 All in all I’ve done a total of 12 court observation sessions but I sorted it out to emphasize key elements important for this particular study but if anybody wish to have a complete paper on my particular work on court observation you can look for it when I post it in www. Scribd .com

37 court proceedings the only persons conversing are the lawyers and the judge ( and her staff). The witness are only questioned and if the answers given are not direct to the point hey are reprimanded the witness can only talk if asked and if not even if they have pertinent thing to say would go to their lawyer and the lawyer would be the one to talk for him. The researcher have also noticed that during the court recess the those with private lawyers discusses to their client what transpired for the day while the PAO lawyer joins the judge and the fiscal in the private room exclusively for the court personnel’s. The researcher also noticed during the court recess an inmate telling his family that he has problems with his hearings for he don’t know what’s the state of his case when I approached and asked him who’s his lawyer he told me that it is the pao lawyer assigned and he doesn’t know what is her name.

After the trial I22 asked my supervisor if what I he can read and comment on my observations while we are traveling back in MCJ. He said yes, I told him my observations, and he told me that such things are the realities of court trials for as he clearly says criminal in this country are treated as nonhuman.

SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS23

1. ESTRADA CASE (I have highlighted the very important case)

The Estrada case thus puts in the spotlight once again how the justice system can become so helpless in the face of a powerful accused. Indeed, the proceedings that

22 This basically refers to the researcher, the term is adopted from the actual research notes.

23 Datas for this part of the chapter are generated by close reading of files found in the internet concerning the three-highlighted case such as the alabang boys case, the Estrada case and the Santos case.

38 were highly politicized became mournfully drawn out, clogged up as it was in part with numerous court-granted perks for Estrada that would make ordinary inmates weep.

Veteran criminal lawyer Mario Ongkiko says, though, that all the special considerations, even for a former president, set a bad precedent in the justice system. “Nagkaroon ng special treatment,” he says. “Now you can expect other accused of prominent stature to ask for some privileges. It’s tailoring the penal system to suit the needs of the accused.”

“All persons should be treated equal, all prisoners should be treated the same,” he points out. “But the equality clause is violated very openly.”

Estrada, though, was being defended by at least eight big-time law firms headed by a former Chief Justice, two other justices, a former University of the Philippines law dean, and other legal luminaries.

2. THE ALABANG BOYS CASE

P50 million was offered to Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors in return for the dismissal of the case and the release of the three, two or three days before Christmas.

The PDEA caught the “Alabang Boys” peddling Ecstasy pills in a sting operation last September but this was dismissed by the Department of Justice (DoJ) investigating panel led by Zuño after three months for insufficiency of evidence. The dismissal has led to charges of bribery by the PDEA, which has prompted

39 President Macapagal-Arroyo to order that the “Alabang Boys” remain in jail while the case was being re-investigated.

The alleged 50 million bribes allegedly put out by the parents of the three young Alabang high society drug pushers show how certain members of the elite view law and justice in this country. In this jurisdiction, says a lawyer friend, everything is for sale.

As for these Alabang boys, the Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales should not let them get away from this crime. They should learn their lesson. Be not afraid. No amount of mumbo jumbo, of toning water, of celebrity status nor strong connections with the palace must ever influence your decision. The evidence against these boys are overwhelming. They must be allowed to rot in jail. Or suffer the ultimate penalty of death.

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo must account for a screwed-up justice system that strongly favors the rich and powerful as seen in the supposed coddling of the "Alabang Boys" by Department of Justice officials.

"Palpak ang sistema ng hustisya sa ating bansa dahil imbes na kasuhan ang maysala gaya ni Jocjoc at nitong mga Alabang Boys ay mas inuuna ng mga opisyal natin ang pangungurakot. (Our justice system is not working because instead of filing charges against the likes of Jocjoc and the Alabang Boys, our officials give priority to stealing from government coffers)," Roxas said.

3. JUDY ANN SANTOS TAX EVASION CASE

The BIR filed a case for not declaring her income from her movie and product endorsement from the year 2002. According to the BIR, she only stated about 8.033

40 million pesos in earnings in 2002, despite earning almost 16.3 million pesos. The tax evasion suit hold a term of two to four years with a fine ranging from 30,000 to 100,000 pesos. The case is finish but the verdict is not well publicized and Judy Ann is still at large.

Judy Ann’s case has amounting evidence but she is acquitted and given the chance to settle her case like all tax evasion case filed against celebrity.

MATRIX OF DATA (AS GATHERED FROM INTERVIEW SCHEDULE OF PURPOSIVE SAMPLE OF 2OO INMATES.)

RESPONDENTS

GENDER MALE FEMALE PAO 62% 50% PRIVATE 38% 50% TOTAL 100% 100%

Fig.1 MATRIX OF RESPONDENTS ACCORDING TO LAWYER CLASSIFICATION.

ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE RESPONDENTS

ECONOMIC POOR MIDDLE RICH STATUS MALE 78% 19% 3% FEMALE 58% 40% 2% TOTAL 68% 29.5% 2.5% RESPONDENTS

Fig. 2 MATRIX OF RESPONDENTS ACCORDING TO THEIR ECONOMIC STATUS.

41 EDUCATIONAL STATUS OF RESPONDENTS

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT ELEMENTARY HIGH SCHOOL COLLEGE LEVEL24 LEVEL25 LEVEL26

MALE 48% 44% 8% FEMALE 36% 51% 13% TOTAL 42% 47.5% 10.5% RESPONDENTS

Fig. 3 MATRIX OF RESPONDENTS ACCORDING TO THEIR EDUCATIONAL BACKROUND.

STATE OF RESPONDENTS LITIGATION

STATE OF ALWAYS POSTPONED NO CONTINOUS COURT DELAYED, FOR 5 TO 8 HEARING WITHOUT LITIGATION POSTPONED, MONTHS FOR A DELAY RESET. YEAR PAO 71.82% 26.79% 9.82% 3.57%

PRIVATE 6.82% 81.18% PRIVATE 78.64% 26.79% 9.82% 84.75%

FIG.2 THE STATE OF THE CRIMINAL LITIGATION OF INMATES

The above matrix of data as descriptively shown give as the statistical figure of how the court litigation proceeds in relation to the type’s one lawyer has. 71.2% of those with PAO lawyer said that they experienced always being delayed, postponed or reseted. While only 6.82% with private lawyers said that, they experienced being delayed, postponed or reseted with their court litigation. On the other hand only 3.75% of those with PAO lawyer said that they

24 Including those who are undergrad.

25 Including those who are undergrad.

26 Including those who are undergrad.

42 experienced continuous without delay court hearings. While 81.18% litigants with private lawyer said that, they have continuous without delay court litigation. Nevertheless, this statistics does not give us the sociological dimension of the said phenomenon we are analyzing however it surely gives us the picture of the phenomenon, of the state of our justice system. Most of those who answered that their litigation are continuous are the once who are categorically speaking belonging with the middle class and those who are paying for their lawyers- PRIVATE. While those who are always delayed, reseted and postponed are those poor and has PAO lawyers.

In addition, the inmates interviewed attach symbolics to their lawyers, which shed light on how they see the category of lawyers. Those interviewed with PAO lawyers call their lawyers as “attorney dimaamin” for they always ask their clients just to admit to the filed complaint so that they can arranged for a plea bargaining. However, this is not the focus of the study but this is mentioned for an additional input concerning the state of the Philippine litigation.

I believe that this things (descriptive statistics) assert a point that our justice system particularly our court (litigation) is not really blind with the wealth you have or the economic resources one have as it depicts with it symbol. The sustenance of our arguments lives and continues as we unravel the real process of our law and as we advocate a Grassroot analysis method of research.

43 Truth

ANALYSIS OF DATA

The power dynamics as the research data shows really operates, affects and in some point determines the course of the criminal litigation in the Philippines socioanalyzing data presented shows how the operation of power dynamics within the justice-litigation process affects it heavily and determines a new form of institution the researchers dubbed as transactional justice.

OPERATES

As the observational method shows, Knowledge/Power complex operates within the litigation process when private lawyers give utmost information to their client concerning the course of their litigation. There by the litigants can be very much prepared concerning the tactics needed for one’s defense. While in the other hand those with PAO lawyers due to their large number are not given the attention needed so that their cases can be well understood by the inmates litigants so in the process they cannot have a good approach or tactics concerning their case in fact they don’t now how are their cases going.

As the secondary data analysis have shown in the case of the alabang boy’s their money talks a lot of the time the bribery scandal issue when they allegedly

44 bribe the now on indefinite suspension prosecutor Resado. When they are given by the court the chance to be put in Taguig jail where all of the inmates are affluent is not it a show of impartiality because they should in fact be put in Manila city jail. Again, in secondary data analysis on the case of the evicted/deposed president Ejercito Estrada when according to the research of PCIJ27 he is found out guilty of charge yet given special concession. Moreover, of course as court observers agree that while the court tried very hard to ensure fairness throughout the proceedings, it became lenient to former President Estrada — in many instances to a fault. In fact, Estrada is now headed back to his Tanay residence, where he has been staying for the last three years, instead of Muntinlupa, where he is supposed to go after being convicted. Moreover, as the PCIJ some up:

Finally still on secondary data analysis on the case of tax evasion by Judy Ann Santos there is as the file prove amounting evidence on the culpability of the tax evasion case yet the court agreed fro a settlement and Judy Ann is acquitted of here crimes. While simple Filipinos who are not as prestigious as her are jail because of petty crimes like bagansia. What kind of system provides this kind of justice?

27 Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, retrieved from www. PCIJ. com

45 Further more as the descriptive datas (be it the quantitative or just the interview) shows that many of the inmates who are indigent and cannot provide their own lawyer are not given the monthly hearing they badly needed in accordance to the law because their lawyers cannot handle the case well because of the overly populated litigant they handle.

AFFECTS

When power dynamics operate within the institution of litigation, which is the court, it affects its behavior of the institution on how it handles ones (the inmate/litigants) case. This um ups as:

1. Wealth- on the case of interview schedule summary and its descriptive statistics, inmates with PAO lawyer experience difficulty regarding their litigation on points like slow trial due to being reset and having 5 to eight months without a court hearing while in the other a hand those with private lawyer experience fast trail with no delays whatsoever.

2. Prestige- on the secondary data analysis of the Judy Ann Santos case her being a celebrity figures a lot with way she is given an acquittal and her case being settled as such one commentator said it is on the air (as saying that is only a show but the truth is they really don’t want to persecute her). This is just like the case of O. J. Simpson28 murdering of her ex-wife and her new boyfriend. Nobody wants to persecute him for they look upon him with devotion looking with blind obedience. In

28 BUGLIOSI, VINCENT OUTRAGE: THE FIVE REASONS WHY O. J SIMPSON GOT AWAY WITH THE MURDER. 1996, W.W NORTON & COMPANY, INC.

46 addition to that, in another secondary data analysis of the deposed president his being an icon of the masses gives him the passes for not being imprisoned in Muntinlupa. (this fact can be debated but we cannot put into question that this figure a lot because the new President, PGMA don’t want anything to do with people especially the masses questioning her about the ex-president treatment.)

3. Knowledge/power complex- a shown in the observation and the interview only those who know about the proceedings of the case are given the chance to strategize about the case. In addition, who are those who know better about their case as shown in the observation those with private lawyer can have time to converse with their lawyer about the facts of their case while those with PAO can only see their lawyers during the trial and they don’t have any time to converse.

DETERMINES

As the dynamics of power (wealth, prestige and knowledge/power complex) operates inside the criminal justice system- court litigation. It creates a new form of justice system, a justice that we can critically and scientifically categorize as the transactional justice system, which serves the interest of those possessing the social power inherent with the status you possess.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

47 CONCLUSION

The odyssey that the researchers have done concerning the sociology of jurisprudence in the Philippines generated many answers on the posted particular problems of the study in particular. What is the difference of having a PAO from private lawyers? As this research proceed we have found out that having PAO lawyer is a bad thing to have in the state of our justice system for as the research have seen they don’t have the knowledge/power complex one needed so that a litigant can create a good tactic for one’s case. Concerning the question of being a celebrity, a politician or a public figure does it affect the litigation process? The research have shown through its secondary data analysis and court observation that status symbol or power dynamics have mainly played a powerful force on, for through its inclusion within the litigation process the litigant (inmate) are much favored and given leniency. This research have in fact presented different and varied observation concerning the symbolic relation on court litigation to sit a few the silent participation of the inmate/litigants shows that only those recognized by the society as having the knowledge/power complex are given the chance to speak their minds. On the issue of how the court litigation proceed we have shown you that from the every turn in the justice system power dynamics can be seen from every turn from how long or short your trial can be are determined by how good are your lawyer and how fast you can pay for your fast trial. Once prestige should also be considered for if you are a deposed president the media attention given to you would prompt the court to proceed faster that its counterpart.

To conclude this initial exploration on the sociology of jurisprudence in the litigation on the Philippines give us the true picture of how corrupted and perverse

48 the institution of justice such as the court litigation in light of the operation of power dynamics.

When this power dynamics are operating in single proportion such as wealth, prestige and knowledge/power complex it can be clearly identified and shown in a simple yet critical discourse.

The argument that the symbol of justice creates a illusion for us to be “illusionize”, and for us to blindly believe that the criminal justice is blind with one social status is wrong and perverse. This only proves that we must be critical of everything in this world.

But this odyssey is just a beginning the litigation (court) is only a single pillar on our justice system so that social change can be attained, all part of the justice system should be analyzed and radically put into criticism for a collective action be done.

RECOMMENDATION

We personally recommend to all of those are working for the development of our future, be it academicians, social scientist, sociologist, activist and those politician with heart for service or plain citizen of this country to consider the field of sociology of jurisprudence as key for the analysis of how is our nation as a judge and as a brother.

We recommend for those who would follow with the path of the study of society to bring into the fore the issues we have open here and now.

We also recommend further exploration and analysis on the immerging institution we coined as TRANSACTIONAL JUSTICE. In the research we have

49 introduce this phenomenon, but it is the researchers are seeing it still in the process of change may this be further search and analyzed.

We also recommend institutionalizing this discourse on the sociology of jurisprudence on the university by having forum mainly dedicated to this field.

We also recommend to the students to take the initiative to read things concerning the sociology of jurisprudence for it merit their attention. An inquiry to such would make them more prepared for the challenge that lies ahead.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

50 BUGLIOSI, VINCENT

GENTRY, CURT

HELTER SKELTER

1984, BANTAM BOOKS INC.

BUGLIOSI, VINCENT

OUTRAGE: THE FIVE REASONS WHY O. J SIMPSON GOT AWAY WITH THE MURDER.

1996, W.W NORTON & COMPANY, INC.

CBSI EDITORIAL STAFF

THE REVISED PENAL CODE ACT NO. 3815, AS AMENDED WITH COMPLETE SPECIAL LAWS.

20TH, EDITION, 1994

CRESSEY, DONALD

COLEMAN, JAMES WILLIAM

SOCIAL PROBLEMS 6 TH EDITION

FREIRE, PAULO

POLITICS OF EDUCATION

CULTURE, POWER AND LIBERATION

1985, BERGIN AND GARVEY PUBLISHERS

FORONDA, C/SUPT. MERCEDES

CORRECTIONAL ADMINISTRATION 1

INSTITUTIONAL CORRECTIONS

GABAO, RAMIL

51 NOTES ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY

GAYLIN, WILLARD

JENNINGS, BRUCE

THE PERVERSION OF AUTHONOMY.

1996, THE FREE PRESS

KENDALL, DIANA

SOCIOLOGY IN OUR TIMES THE ESSENTIALS 3 RD EDITION

MAY, TIM

SITUATING SOCIAL THEORY

1996, OPEN UNIVERSITY PRESS

TIONGSON-MAYRINA, KAREN

Guilty! But special concessions for accused show flawed system.

RETRIVE FROM: www.PCIJ.com

OSBORN, RICHARD ET AL.

INTRODUCING SOCIOLOGY

2004, ICON BOOKS LTD.

SAMENOW, STANTON Ph.D.

INSIDE THE CRIMINAL MIND

1984, RANDOM HOUSE, INC.

SARDAR, ZIAUDDIN

VAN LOON, BORIN

INTRODUCING CULTURAL STUDIES

1997, TOTEM BOOKS

SCHUTT, RUSSELL

52 INVESTIGATING THE SOCIAL WORLD

THE PROCESS AND PRACTICE OF RESEARCH

SWINEDBERG, RICHARD

MAX WEBER’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY OF LAW.

2006, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF ECONOMY AND SOCIETY.

SWINGEWOOD, ALAN

A SHORT HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT

3RD EDITION

2000, PALGRAVE

ZEITLIN, IRVING

IDEOLOGY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

1968, PRENTICE HALL INC.

53 EMMANUEL S. CALIWAN, one of the researcher in this study, WITH HIS STUDENTS AND SUPERVISOR IN Manila City Jail

______END______

“Men in the masses are gripped by personal troubles but they are not aware of their true meaning and source”.

-Charles Wright Mills

54 APPENDICES AND LETTER ATTACHMENTS

(For further references)

55 THE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES MABINI CAMPUS STA.MESA, MANILA COLLEGE OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH AND PRAXIS

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

SUPT. AMELIA A. RAYANDAYAN

Warden, MCJ56 female

Dear Warden:

Greetings of Peace in Christ and In Service of the People!

In accordance to the 2006 Ladderized curriculum on Bachelor of Science in Sociology and in the existing CHED memorandum that all graduating students of any university should before they graduate should submit a thesis/dissertation to add a new knowledge on their field of discipline and in the process make use of that knowledge for the eventual development of our future. In this regard we 4th year students of sociology ask your good office to allow us to interview 100 of your inmates regarding our thesis entitled: The Sociology of Jurisprudence: An Analysis of the Weberian conception of stratification applied to the Criminal Justice System (Litigation, Correction and Promulgation.). The said interview would help us understand better our existing criminal justice system. (We are planning to conduct a two day interview with the inmates preferably Monday and Tuesday.)

Hoping for your positive approval.

Thank you and May God continue to bless you in all your undertakings!

Sincerely yours in the service of the people,

EMMANUEL S. CALIWAN BS Sociology Team leader Thesis group1 on the Sociology of Law.

1 The thesis group are composed of three members namely Roma Jessa Purpura, Nannette Gerona and myself the three of us are going to conduct the said interview. THE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES MABINI CAMPUS STA.MESA, MANILA COLLEGE OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH AND PRAXIS

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

SUPT. HERNAN D. GRANDE

Warden, MCJ57 male

Dear Warden:

Greetings of Peace in Christ and In Service of the People!

Hoping for your positive approval.

Thank you and May God continue to bless you in all your undertakings!

Sincerely yours in the service of the people,

EMMANUEL S. CALIWAN BS Sociology Team leader Thesis group1 on the Sociology of Law.

1 The thesis group is composed of three members namely Roma Jessa Purpura, Nannette Gerona and myself the three of us are going to conduct the said interview. APPENDIX B. SECONDARY DATA ARCHIEVE

A.) ALABANG BOYS CASE

Retrieved from:

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/jan/06/yehey/opinion/20090106opi5.html

VIRTUALREALITY By: Tony Lopez The Alabang Boys

They are the Alabang Boys, alleged drug users and drug dealers, caught by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) during an entrapment operation on September 20, 2008. Their case became headline material thanks to a two-week- long holiday during which there was a news drought. Fighting illegal drugs is one of the most difficult jobs and one of the most dangerous. In Mexico, enforcers are routinely murdered by drug lords.

The Philippines ranks first in the percentage of the population aged 15 to 64 as having used shabu or methamphetamine. A 2004 Dangerous Drugs Board survey found 6.7 million drug users in the country.

The Philippine Star broke the Alabang Boys story on Dec. 23, 2008 but it was the Philippine Daily Inquirer which saw its large potential as a campaign story. Apparently, P50 million was offered to Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors in return for the dismissal of the case and the release of the three, two or three days before Christmas. The DOJ people, of course, deny receiving any bribe.

Richard Santos Brodett, Jorge Jordana Joseph and Joseph Ramirez Tecson are the most high profile drug suspects to be arrested by the PDEA after a season in which a number of drug lords, some of them with mono-syllabic names, got away scot free, thanks to the Justice department and some influential politicians.

The trio are called Alabang Boys because the drug entrapment took place inside snooty Ayala Alabang Village, 22 kilometers south of Manila. A PDEA agent was attempting to buy drugs from Joseph who was assisted allegedly by Brodett who was inside a car a short distance away.

To his credit, Brodett sensed the setup right away and tried to speed away. PDEA agents gave chase, firing about seven shots at Brodett’s car. Miraculously Brodett ducked the fatal bullets. “He knew how to drive even while hiding his head and being chased by enforcers,” a PDEA agent told me. Otherwise, Brodett would have been dead by now. This shows how determined the PDEA is in pursuing this case.

58 Tecson was arrested a few hours later in another operation, thanks to information gathered from Joseph.

There were a number of PDEA agents involved in the chase and I am told even the Ayala Alabang guards tried to interfere. The Senate should also look into the possibility of inviting the Alabang guards at the time of the incident for any corroborative narrative.

The Alabang Boys are now the subject of a tug-of-war between the PDEA and prosecutors and officials of the Department of Justice under Secretary Raul Gonzalez. The boys are said to be scions of influential, if not hugely wealthy parents, relatives and backers. A parent of one of the Alabang suspects is supposed to be behind a lucrative government contract having to do with running (not of humans).

Secretary Gonzalez sneers at the so-called P50-million bribe offer or outright bribe to DOJ prosecutors in return for the dismissal of the case. “That means they are richer than Meralco,” he hisses. PDEA boss retired General Dionisio Santiago retorts: “The P50 million is cheap in relation to a lifetime in jail. The punishment for illegal drugs dealing is lifetime imprisonment.”

Also, Santiago says, “these boys have been described as salot [curse] by families of their victims.” The PDEA chief also hints at possible links of the boys to international drug syndicates. Santiago says “these are no ordinary boys.”

The father of one of the boys, Johnny Joseph, Johnny Midnight to the many followers of his unlamented toning days on radio, has gone on a media offensive, defending his son, Jorge. His son, he admits, “is a social user but not an addict. It’s no big deal.” To which General Santiago counters: “If I kill someone, can I say that I am just a social murderer?”

Gonzalez is at a disadvantage in this game. He is in a damn if you do, damn in you don’t situation. People under him, including an otherwise well-meaning undersecretary and a veteran state prosecutor, are under a cloud of doubt because of allegations of payoff and use of pressure that should have led to the release of the Alabang Boys.

I like the face-off between Secretary Gonzalez and General Santiago. Both are very competent people with years of dedicated service in government. Gonzalez is a topnotch lawyer who became famous as a prosecutor of the Aquino-Galman double murder case. Santiago has a 37-year military career and is a former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and director of the National Penitentiary. Both men can be very stubborn, which is often how they get things done.

When Gloria Arroyo named him PDEA chief in April 2006, her instructions to Santiago were: “Get back to work.”

59 Retrieved from:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090103- 181159/Alabang-Boys-probe-starts-Monday

‘Alabang Boys’ probe starts Monday

Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 01:37:00 01/03/2009

Filed Under: Illegal drugs, PDEA-DOJ bribery issue

MANILA, Philippines—The House of Representatives will start on Monday its investigation of the government’s war on illegal drugs and its drug enforcement and prosecution to determine why major operations like those involving the so-called “Alabang Boys” turned out to be legal bust in the hands of the justice department.

Last week, Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, chair of the Senate committee on public order, safety and illegal drugs, had agreed to look into the case of the “Alabang Boys,” especially on how to ensure that the enforcement side and prosecution side work on the same page. This was according to Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, chair of the Dangerous Drugs Board.

To go full blast

Ilocos Norte Rep. Roquito Ablan, chair of the congressional oversight committee on dangerous drugs, has invited Philippine Drug Enforcement Authority (PDEA) head Dionisio Santiago, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, and Sotto for an informal hearing on Jan. 5.

“This is just information gathering from the key players. We plan to go full blast once Congress resumes its session. We have decided to do this quickly because this cannot wait,” Ablan said.

Ablan was referring to the alleged P50-million bribe that led to the recommendation by state prosecutors to dismiss the charges against Richard Santos Brodett, Jorge Jordana Joseph and Joseph Ramirez Tecson.

He noted the dismissal of cases involving high-profile drug operations made by the PDEA last year.

“We cannot let this continue. We have to find out the reasons why these cases where the culprits have been caught red-handed are being dismissed so easily,” said Ablan in a phone

60 interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Discouraging pattern of dismissals

The dismissal has led to charges of bribery by the PDEA which has prompted President Macapagal-Arroyo to order that the “Alabang Boys” remain in jail while the case was being re-investigated.

Ablan said the case of the “Alabang Boys” was not the only concern of the House committee.

He noted that there seemed to be a discouraging pattern in which the DoJ had failed to make any of the charges stick on suspects linked to illegal drug trade busted by the PDEA in 2008 such as those in La Union, Laguna, Aurora-Quezon, and Subic Freeport. Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.

Retrieved from:

http://filipinovoices.com/of-bribery-and-alabang-boys

Of bribery and Alabang Boys

December 30th, 2008 by Patricio Mangubat

61 The alleged 50 million bribe allegedly put out by the parents of the three young Alabang high society drug pushers show how certain members of the elite view law and justice in this country. In this jurisdiction, says a lawyer friend, everything is for sale. You get to power by rigging elections. A vote cost 25 pesos a few days before elections, but if you negotiated earlier, you’ll probably get it for just 7 pesos. Congressional posts, especially partylist positions, cost 5 million per seat. If you have 10 million, you’ll be a mayor of a small town. Don’t worry–you’ll get your 5 million back in a jiffy, especially if there’s an impeachment filed against the president.

A TRO cost around 250-500,000 pesos. A favorable decision cost roughly 100,000 to a million, depending on the crime charged. A resolution reportedly cost between 50,000 to as much as 500,000, again depending on the crime

Everything is for sale. For billions worth of loans, we’re willing to surrender our sovereign rights to the Spratlys and all other mountains containing minerals and precious ore. For some billions of pesos, we’re willing to surrender even our state secrets and national security, allowing an emerging Superpower to use our facilities to eavesdrop on their enemy at the other side of the globe. For a few billions of loans, we’re willing to accept toxic and hazardous chemical and nuclear wastes. And for a few more billions of loans, we’re even willing to give up our fishing grounds, sell our agricultural lands and even our power assets to the highest bidder, err, the highest briber.

Bribery happens not just in those ritzy restos but also in the dirty backwaters of philistine Metro Manila. Look, when an accident happens between two motorists, you’ll hear one of them bragging about some relative in government or how well connected he or she is. You’ll see motorists flashing some ID, be it media, government, police or AFP. When all else fails, you’ll find someone reaching for his wallet and parting his precious 100 pesos.

When I was still a police beat reporter, I witnessed how suspects give dirty money to corrupt cops. Those arrested for drug charges are the most vulnerable. In thug speak, we hear of the word “palit-ulo”, a contemptuous practice which allows arrested suspects to go scot-free in exchange for cash and information on the next big fish. Probably, these Alabang Boys wanted to enter into such deals, but fortunately, those members of the PDEA have seen it all and fully determined to end the drug mafia rule in the Philippines.

As of latest, these Alabang boys will be spending their new year in their new home– the congested Quezon City jail. I personally commend the PDEA led by retired General Santiago–sir, you have earned the people’s trust and respect. We salute you and your boys, especially our fellow Magdalo brothers there who continue to work to get rid of these scums of the earth.

62 Next time sir, be not entirely lenient or say, humane. Kill those druglords and their bastard gangs immediately. Burn their labs. Riddle their bodies with bullets. Leave no trace. Cut their heads off. Mangle their bodies. Lert’s show the world, especially those Taiwanese, Chinese and Brazilian drug barons that they are persona non grata here in our country. If I’m Mrs. Arroyo, i’ll order the immediate execution of these foreign devils.

About Author: Patricio Mangubat has written 189 articles. Patricio Mangubat is a pseudonym. It means "country fight". Yet, the one behind this name is real. He can be briefly described as a long-time activist as well as a communication strategist. He once taught at the University of the Philippines and at Dela Salle University. He blogs at The New Philippine Revolution. Aside from writing, he recently opened a roast chicken business, Manok King.

Retrieved from: http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2009/0107_roxas1.asp

Press Release January 7, 2009

ROXAS: ALABANG BOYS CASE SHOWS RP JUSTICE SCREWED-UP

63 Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo must account for a screwed-up justice system that strongly favors the rich and powerful as seen in the supposed coddling of the "Alabang Boys" by Department of Justice officials.

"Palpak ang sistema ng hustisya sa ating bansa dahil imbes na kasuhan ang maysala gaya ni Jocjoc at nitong mga Alabang Boys ay mas inuuna ng mga opisyal natin ang pangungurakot (Our justice system is not working because instead of filing charges against the likes of Jocjoc and the Alabang Boys, our officials give priority to stealing from government coffers)," Roxas said.

He said the fact that Congress needs to investigate the issue showed that even law enforcers like the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) distrust the justice system.

"Nakakahiya at nakakainis na walang ginawa si Gloria para ayusin ang sistema sa walong taong nakaupo siya bilang Pangulo (It's embarrassing and so frustrating that Gloria didn't do anything to fix the system in the eight she was President)," he said. "Paano natin babaguhin ang sistema kung ang mga malalaking isda ay nakakalaya na lang basta-basta (How do we change this if the big fish get away with it)?

Roxas said the worsening of the illegal drugs problem in the country is clear proof that the criminal justice system is not working.

He noted that while supply scarcity had forced prices of shabu to skyrocket, demand for the illicit drug and the number of drug busts nationwide continued to rise based on records from government agencies.

Information from the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) showed that the price of shabu soared to P70,000 to P80,00 per 25 grams, or known as "bulto" in local street terms, last year following the seizure last May of 770 kilograms of the drug, estimated to be worth P4.6 billion, at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

B.) Erap file

September 2007

The Estrada Plunder Trial

Guilty! But special concessions for accused show flawed system

64 by Karen Tiongson-Mayrina

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 ·

IT MAY take some time before the debates end in reaction to the much anticipated landmark ruling on the first criminal trial involving a former President of the Republic. On Wednesday, ousted president Joseph Ejercito Estrada was found guilty of plunder, but was acquitted on the perjury charge. His co-accused, son Jose ‘Jinggoy’ and lawyer Edward S. Serapio were also acquitted of plunder.

Beyond the verdict, however, thought should be given on how the trial was handled by the Sandiganbayan, the special court that has jurisdiction over FORMER President Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada criminal and civil cases involving graft is found guilty of plunder but is acquitted and other offenses committed by public of the charge of perjury. [PCIJ file photo] officials and employees.

Still, in a justice system where cases sleep for decades, a high-profile case finished in six years — as the Estrada case was — is regarded as a feat. Even the prosecution

65 panel, which tried to ward off every attempt of the Estrada camp to delay the case, says finishing the trial in six years is already an accomplishment in the Philippine setting.

“If you will consider the personalities involved — the former President, an incumbent senator — this could (have gone) on for many years,” says Ombudsman Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio, head of the prosecution panel. “Estrada is an acknowledged opposition leader, very influential, maraming (lots of) resources.”

He adds, “If you compare it with the Marcos and Romualdez cases and many other cases that after 20 years there is still no result, we achieved something — that a case involving a president can be terminated in a shorter period.”

This is also considering the fact that for more than 80 days — or the equivalent of close to three months — of the six years that the case dragged on, the accused was outside his place of detention.

Which has made people like Ongkiko worry. “All persons should be treated equal, all prisoners should be treated the same,” he points out. “But the equality clause is violated very openly.”

Court observers believe that the Sandiganbayan’s leniency toward Estrada could have been a court tactic to sugarcoat an anticipated adverse ruling on the accused. “At the end of the day, Erap would (then) have no right to say that the Sandiganbayan persecuted him,” a court observer said.

Ongkiko only goes as far as saying that the Sandiganbayan has the choice to implement the law but has become lenient to Estrada, obviously bowing to some “external influence.” He declines to elaborate, but it is well known that Sandiganbayan justices may be appointed by the President to the Supreme Court.

A litany of concessions

An analysis of data gathered by GMA News Research showed that for at least 36 days, Estrada was seeking surgery, treatment, or a check-up for various ailments including eye cataracts and infection, ailing knees, pneumonia, even an emergency tooth extraction.

He was allowed to go to the United States for a knee replacement surgery in December 2003, although this did not push through because the U.S. Embassy declined to give him a visa. He opted for Hong Kong, spending 20 days there in a hotel, even flying in his barber.

The Sandiganbayan, which created a Special Division just to handle Estrada’s case, also granted the deposed president’s requests to undergo “spiritual healing” in Caloocan.

66 Estrada got to see his mother Doña Mary many times (the latest being last Sunday) and was present during her May 2 birthday from 2004 up to this year, when she turned 102. He himself had a birthday bash in 2005.

He even had a Lenten break in 2004, and was able to spend Christmas and New Year in his house in Greenhills in 2005 and 2006.

Estrada also did not miss such occasions as the wake of his friend Fernando Poe Jr., the anniversary of religious group El Shaddai, the centennial of his hometown San Juan, and the wedding and oath-taking of his son San Juan Mayor Joseph Victor ‘JV’ Ejercito.

The former president tried as well to ask the court permission for him to visit his mother every weekend, spend All Saints’ Day outside detention, celebrate son Jinggoy’s birthday, and personally file a libel case. But these were denied.

The antigraft court also twice denied his requests for house arrest. In July 2004, however, it reversed these rulings. Estrada has since been detained at his sprawling resort-like villa in Tanay, Rizal — from his previous confinement in Camp Capinpin, also in Tanay; Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna; Camp Crame and Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

In its previous rulings, the Sandiganbayan said there was no basis in the Constitution or in law to allow Estrada, who is facing a capital offense, to be held under house arrest. But Jose Flaminiano of the defense says it is assumed that the justices of the Special Division studied the motion regarding this. “These motions are what they call discretionary on the part of the court,” he says. “It’s…for the court to decide whether to grant or not.”

Besides, the prosecution never challenged many of the orders of the Sandiganbayan granting his client’s requests, he says. Flaminiano also says that nobody can invoke equal treatment because no other inmate bothered to file motions similar to theirs.

Flaminiano says the fact that the accused was elected by an overwhelming majority of Filipinos accords him a certain advantage. “Having been a president, he is imbued with a peculiar privilege, entitled to some degree of leniency,” he argues. “After all, he will not escape.”

Delays upon delays

Court observers, however, note that it was the defense that was using one delaying tactic after another to further stretch the proceedings, which obviously meant more time for Estrada in detention. “It came to a point when we (didn’t) write the postponements anymore because it was no longer news,” says a reporter, one of only two who were able to cover the trial from start to finish.

67 Villa-Ignacio himself says that the proceedings could have been finished in three and a half years. “Unfortunately, the defense did everything under the rules to delay the proceedings,” he says.

By the prosecution’s calculations, a year and eight months were wasted on the Estrada camp’s dilatory tactics alone.

But Flaminiano says that there was no “intentional delay” on the part of the defense. The Sandiganbayan did not sanction them for delay, he says.

“Delay is part of the rules of procedure,” he says. “There are rules for postponement. The court never said we intentionally delay cases. The court will not allow that. We will be sanctioned if we delay. But we were not once admonished. The only one who is saying that is (Villa-Ignacio).”

For sure, the Philippine judiciary is not lacking on laws that minimize delay in the processing of cases. The Supreme Court has issued various administrative circulars ordering all courts to adopt the mandatory continuous trial system.

The Revised Rules on Criminal Procedure provides that trial should continue from day to day as far as practicable until terminated. “In no case shall the entire period exceed 180 days from the first day of trial, except as otherwise authorized by the Supreme Court,” say the Rules.

Republic Act 8493 or the Speedy Trial Act of 1998 further underscores this mandate. The Estrada case, however, was being tried in the Sandiganbayan, which is not exactly known for speed. Indeed, while it accounts for a meager portion of the caseload of the judiciary for 2006, the Sandiganbayan takes the longest average time in deciding cases — 6.6 years compared to the 1.43 years for the Supreme Court, 1.32 years for the Court of Appeals, and 2.6 years for the Court of Tax Appeals.

Still, the Sandiganbayan tried to quicken its pace especially for the Estrada case. Originally, it conducted trial hearings twice a week, from nine a.m. to 12 noon. In February 2002, the Special Division issued a resolution modifying the six-hour-a- week schedule to thrice a week: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, also from nine a.m. to 12 noon.

But this was never implemented after the former president and his co-accused, son Jinggoy, dismissed their lawyers. The prosecution, in a bid to hasten the trial, asked the anti-graft court to carry out the resolution. The Special Division denied the motion and the subsequent motion for reconsideration, prompting the prosecution to elevate the issue to the Supreme Court.

In a resolution issued in October 2004, the High Tribunal dismissed the petition for lack of merit.

68 Both prosecution and defense in the Estrada case would elevate many other incidents to the Supreme Court. There was also an instance when defense counsel Rene Saguisag asked for the inhibition of Associate Justice Edilberto Sandoval for allegedly lobbying for the top post at the Sandiganbayan.

‘Smooth sailing’ for prosecution?

The prosecution actually finished its presentation of witnesses and evidence in one and a half years, from October 2001 to April 2003. It says it presented 76 witnesses and around 2,500 pieces of documentary evidence including a paper trail on the questionable transactions.

It got two Sandiganbayan rulings in its favor. On March 17, 2004, the Special Division denied Estrada’s request to waive his right to present evidence. The defense filed a motion for leave to file demurrer to evidence, claiming that the prosecution has no evidence to pin down their client. On October 4, 2005, the Sandiganbayan junked Estrada’s petition for bail, in effect acknowledging that the evidence of the prosecution is strong.

“It was smooth-sailing,” says one of the two reporters who covered the trial from start to finish, referring to the way the prosecution presented its case. It helped that many of the prosecution witnesses were already presented during the aborted impeachment trial of Estrada.

The reporter says that at the Sandiganbayan, prosecution witnesses were presented according to the accusations in the plunder offense — jueteng payoffs, misappropriation of tobacco excise tax, commission from the sale of Belle Corp. shares, and the Jose Velarde account.

“We…never asked for a single postponement,” stresses Villa-Ignacio. “We (were) always ready for any three to four witnesses.”

But midway into the presentation, in February 2002, Estrada dismissed his lawyers, delaying the proceedings by around two months. Later that same year, another delay was blamed on the defense. Villa-Ignacio accused defense lawyers of dawdling on the cross-examination of the prosecution witness preceding star witness Clarissa Ocampo. As a result, Ocampo, who arrived in court amid a very tight security on November 11, 2002, was made to wait until the next hearing day to take the stand.

The defense’s turn

When it was the defense’s turn, Estrada hired a new lawyer in May 2003. But Ateneo law professor Alan Paguia further delayed the proceedings. His first act: a motion to dismiss the charges on the grounds that the Sandiganbayan has no jurisdiction on the case. Six months later, he was indefinitely suspended for attacking the Supreme Court justices’ decision legitimizing Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s assumption of the presidency in 2001. (Paguia later figured in the Hello Garci controversy, releasing

69 tapes containing the supposed conversation between President Arroyo and then Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.)

The defense also filed an impeachment complaint against eight Supreme Court justices led by then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. for allegedly conspiring to unseat Estrada.

Estrada mellowed down, acknowledging the authority and jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan, in December 2003, after the Special Division allowed him to travel to the United States to undergo knee replacement surgery.

Villa-Ignacio says the defense filed more than a hundred of motions in the last six years. “During the time of (retired) Justice (Anacleto) Badoy they filed motions every other day,” he says. “It’s part of their strategy to wear out the justices. And it looks like they succeeded because Badoy eventually took a leave.”

The defense finally started its presentation only sometime in September 2004. It wrapped up on August 30, 2006, or after two years.

At one point, the Special Division had to reset the hearings several times because defense lawyers were having a hard time contacting witnesses. Defense lawyers claimed they were also having difficulty appearing in the twice-a-week court dates because of the other cases they were handling as private lawyers.

A reporter recalls that one time a justice asked defense counsel Rene Saguisag, “Are you ready with your witness?” In return, Saguisag addressed the crowd with, “Is there anyone here who responded to the subpoena?”

“I remember Villa-Ignacio saying sa susunod pati magtataho tatawagin nila (next time they’ll call in the soybean curd vendor),” says the reporter.

But Flaminiano says, “We have few resources compared to the prosecution panel that avails of government funds. They can call any government prosecutor while we are undermanned.”

Ongkiko, meanwhile, says the slow proceedings could be attributed to the flaws of the Speedy Trial Act. “It’s more of not followed,” he explains. “Of course, the courts have many cases and sometimes it’s the fault of the accused. But if you will read the law, there are many periods of delay excluded in computing the trial time.”

Section 10 of the law excludes delay from other proceedings concerning the accused including an examination on his/her mental competency or physical incapacity; trials with respect to his/her other charges; interlocutory appeals; orders

70 of inhibition, change of venue or transfer to other courts; unavailability of the accused or an essential witness, among others. These are supposed to help ensure that the rights of the accused are also adequately protected.

But Ongkiko argues, that law is “too difficult to implement.” He says, “They should simplify it. Like making it strictly 180-day trial(s) — no more, no less.”

A question of defense witnesses

Court observers, however, say that the dilly-dallying of the Estrada camp was but an indication of a bigger problem: a less-than-solid defense. This, they say, could be gleaned from the kind of witnesses presented by the defense.

“Puro character witnesses,” comments one reporter, referring to defense witnesses whose testimonies either discredited the prosecution star witness, former Ilocos Sur Governor Luis ‘Chavit’ Singson, or extolled Estrada.

The defense also fielded Fr. James Reuter to present before the justices the “other side” of Estrada before they decided on a case in which the maximum punishment is death. Reuter testified that Estrada patched things up with the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin two weeks before he died.

Former Chief Justice Andres Narvasa also testified that Estrada was a mere “victim of political persecution” and that the Arroyo administration offered to waive the charges in exchange for his freedom.

Defense witnesses and opposition senators Edgardo Angara and Aquilino Pimentel Jr., as well as then senator Alfredo Lim, also gave testimonies. “But they have nothing to do with the plunder case,” says a journalist who reported on the trial. “They stated that Erap is a good friend.”

To Villa-Ignacio, the defense was just “killing time” most of the time. “They were presenting witnesses irrelevant to the case,” he says, referring to about seven newspaper reporters who were called to testify on the circumstances of the articles they had written.

“I advised the male reporters to wear their best clothes and the women to go to the beauty parlor first before going to the courtroom because they might be asked by the defense to testify,” recalls Villa-Ignacio.

A seasoned court reporter, who was among the journalists called to testify, also says, “You know the value of a journalist’s testimony. It’s hearsay; it’s not used as evidence in court.”

The defense presented a total of 80 witnesses. According to Flamianiano, the prosecution did not even present a single gambling lord to prove that his client protected gambling or anyone of the alleged depositors in the Jose Velarde account.

71 Prosecution star witness Clarissa Ocampo may have seen Estrada sign as Jose Velarde but did not say that he received money, he adds.

Says Flaminiano: “The prosecution carries the burden of proving reasonable doubt from start to finish.”

And as it has turned out, the Sandiganbayan justices apparently thought that at least when it came to the plunder charge against the ex-president, the prosecution did that job quite well.

The ultimate verdict

by Harry Roque

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 · Share this story

The author is the director of the Institute of International Legal Studies at the University of the Philippines Law Center and is an assistant professor of law at UP Diliman.

THE ESTRADA plunder trial is truly unprecedented. It is the first time that a president, the most powerful official of the land — and, ironically, in Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada’s case, probably the most popular ever — to be accused of a heinous criminal act. Estrada was the first Philippine president ever to be impeached. He was also the first to be placed under detention (albeit in a golden cage of Tanay), the first to undergo a full-blown criminal prosecution and now, the first to be convicted.

For all his faults though, and despite the verdict of guilt, the Filipino people owe Estrada some debt of gratitude, if only because he allowed democratic institutions to function. Lesser mortals would probably have used the power of their office to completely evade the wheels of justice, or perhaps simply skipped town a la former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn ‘Joc Joc’ Bolante. But Estrada stayed, took the witness stand, and confronted his accusers.

While it is indeed the function of the judiciary to determine guilt or innocence, it is still up to the sovereign people to accept the legitimacy of any and all judicial pronouncements. Surely, Edsa I taught us that it is when people lose their belief in the judiciary that they exercise their sovereign prerogative, toppling even the

72 strongest regimes. It is in this light that the following summary of evidence was prepared: to guide the people in the exercise of their sovereign prerogatives in passing their verdict on the legitimacy of the Erap decision. After all, the exercise of sovereignty should be based also on reason, not just on passion.

Comparative Table of Prosecution and Defense Arguments (People vs. Estrada)

I. PARAGRAPH “a” Amended Info: ALLEGED JUETENG PAY-OFFS

PROSECUTION DEFENSE

A) AS TO JOSEPH ESTRADA A) The prosecution failed to show beyond IT HAS BEEN INCONTROVERTIBLY reasonable doubt that the accused ESTABLISHED THAT THE HUNDREDS OF Estrada committed the act of “amassing, MILLIONS OF PESOS OF JUETENG PROTECTION accumulating and acquiring” wealth, MONEY THAT HAD BEEN COLLECTED AND particularly, the act described in ACCUMULATED AS BRIBES WERE COLLECTED paragraphs “a” of the “Amended AND ACCUMULATED ON ACCOUNT OF, AND Information” (Jueteng Bribery) (p.78) 1) FOR, ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA. 1) Principal witness Singson had strong ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA ACCESSED AND motive to get back at Pres. Estrada EXERCISED OWNERSHIP, CONTROL AND (p.114) DISPOSITION OVER THE SAID COLLECTED AND ACCUMULATED JUETENG PROTECTION MONEY a) Singson himself testified that: (p.118) he asked Ang to reserve the franchise or 2) THE VOLUMINOUS DOCUMENTS AND license of Bingo 2-balls in Ilocos Sur EVIDENCE PRESENTED BY THE PROSECUTION Ang instead gave the Bingo-2 franchise to ESTABLISHED WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY Singson’s political rivals THAT SAID JUETENG PROTECTION MONEY COLLECTED AND ACCUMULATED AS BRIBES b) Luis Asistio testified that: WERE GIVEN TO, AND/OR ENDED UP WITH, ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA OR HIS Singson told him about the former’s DUMMIES/NOMINEES WHO ARE PERSONS disappointment after the Bingo-2 ball was CLOSELY CONNECTED WITH HIM (p.161) given to his political rivals

a) Luis Singson testified that: c) Alfredo Lim testified that:

he went to Estrada’s house in Polk St. and when he and Asistio talked to Singson met Estrada, Charlie Ang and Bong Pineda about the attempt on the latter’s life, there. Singson said that he is mad at Ang because the latter gave the Bingo-2 ball he and Ang were asked by Estrada to deliver franchise to his opponents jueteng money to him d) Estrada testified that: he and Ang started collecting jueteng money

73 in August 98 Singson was against the legalization of jueteng he started delivering jueteng money in September 98 2) Testimony of Singson comes from a polluted source, as Singson himself has he delivered jueteng money to Estrada every confessed to covering up his crimes 15 days (p.119) he was the lone collector starting November 3) ‘Ledgers’ relied on by Singson are 98 due to a disagreement between Estrada hearsay and Ang 4) No evidence was presented that he listed all the collections and expenses in a accused protected or tolerated Jueteng ledger (p.126) he personally delivered a total of P200M to a) Estrada testified that: Estrada he never met Singson, Pineda and Ang in Yolanda Ricaforte is Estrada’s auditor for the Polk St. jueteng money he never received P5M or P10M from Ricaforte prepared the ledger from August Singson every 15 days 1999 to August 2000 he never knew about the ledgers of he transferred the remaining balance of the Singson jueteng money to Estrada’s auditor, Yolanda Ricaforte, in August 1999 he never received money from Carmencita Itchon and Emma Lim jueteng collections from August 1999 until August 2000 were deposited to Estrada’s Yolanda Ricaforte was not his jueteng bank accounts, which were in Ricaforte’s auditor name he never ordered Singson to give P5M to there was an attempt on his life to prevent Laarni Enriquez and P65M to William him from making an expose. Two mobile Gatchalian patrols attempted to ambush him in San Marcelino St., Manila 5) Foundation was a legitimate educational foundation aimed to assist he was instructed by Estrada to give P200M to Muslim youth (p.128) Atty. Edward Serapio a) Danilo Reyes (a trustee of the EMYF) b) Emma Lim testified that: testified that: she was instructed by Singson to collect Dr. De Guzman organized the EMYF money from Bong Pineda and Jinggoy Estrada he was told by Dr. De Guzman that the

74 c) Carmencita Itchon testified that: foundation is part of Estrada’s vision to held develop young Muslim leaders and she received 12 collections from the that it will be among the beneficiaries of messengers of Singson and Anton Prieto the ERAP Golf Cup d) Federico Artates (a security escort of the foundation’s funding came from the Singson) testified that: P100,000 contributions of the he collected P5M from Bong Pineda incorporators and the P10M received from the ERAP Golf Cup in the summer of the P5M was delivered to the presidential 2000 residence by Emma Lim the foundation received a P200M e) Jamis Singson (a personal aide of Singson) donation testified that: he was told by Atty. Serapio that the he accompanied Artates when the latter donor wanted to remain anonymous collected money from Bong Pineda b) Salvador Domona, Sohayle Hadji he accompanied Lim when she delivered the Marangit, Janice Halim Negrosa, Roque money to Malacañang Morales testified that: f) Vicente Amistad (a security escort of they were scholars of the EMYF Singson) testified that: c) Estrada testified that: he collected money from Bong Pineda in 1999 and 2000 his Erap Muslim Youth Foundation is not a bogus foundation intended to launder he collected money from a security escort of jueteng protection money then Mayor Jinggoy he was not a signatory to any of the he delivered the money to Singson foundation’s bank accounts g) Edelquin Nantes, Rosario Bautista, Shakira 6) Singson’s testimony replete with Yu, Vergel Pabillon, Edgardo Lim Alcaraz and inconsistencies and lies (p.130) Emma Aguila Gonzales (Equitable-PCI Bank branch managers) testified that: a) Noel Vallo (police chief inspector) testified that: Yolanda Ricaforte opened, maintained and later closed saving accounts in the bank a vehicle beat the red light

Ricaforte applied for manager’s and cashier’s they pursued the vehicle and stopped it checks they discovered that Gov. Singson was h) Antonio Martin Fortuno (Equitable-PCI Bank inside the vehicle Pacific Star branch manager) testified that: he called Police Supt. Rodolfo Azurin

75 because Singson complained that they are being harassed

b) Rodolfo Azurin (police superintendent) testified that: on April 25, 2000 checks were deposited into a “bearer” account at his branch he immediately convinced Singson to come with them to the Western Police the checks were withdrawn from April 27, District headquarters in Manila 2000 up to May 11, 2000 when they reached the WPD the withdrawn amounts were deposited into headquarters, they issued a traffic the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation maintained violation ticket to Singson’s driver and at Equitable-PCI Bank in Strata 100 confiscated the sirens and blinkers attached to the vehicle i) Aida Basila (Equitable-PCI Bank branch manager) testified that: Singson complained to the media present that they were being harassed because there were 28 inter-branch deposits from their he was not in favor of the PAGCOR Bingo branch amounting to P200M made into the 2-ball Erap Muslim Youth Foundation’s savings account from April 21 to May 11, 2000 c) Arturo Paglinawan (police superintendent) testified that:

the blotter showed no recorded complaint by Singson against the police who were in Marcelino St.

B) AS TO JINGGOY ESTRADA 7) No independent corroborating ACCUSED JINGGOY ESTRADA’S COMPLICITY BY evidence to Singson’s testimony (p.142) DIRECT PARTICIPATION AND/OR INDISPENSABLE COOPERATION IN THE SERIES B) Assuming the act was committed, the OF TWICE-A-MONTH COLLECTION AND particular act described in paragraph “a” RECEIPT OF JUETENG PROTECTION MONEY AS (on jueteng bribery) was committed by BRIBE, OWING TO ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA Governor Chavit Singson, not by accused HAVING TAKEN UNDUE ADVANTAGE OF HIS Estrada. POSITION AND AUTHORITY, HAD BEEN a) Jinggoy testified that: INCONTROVERTIBLY ESTABLISHED. (p.176) he was never a jueteng collector for 1) THE FOREGOING COMPLICITY BY DIRECT Bulacan AND/OR INDISPENSABLE PARTICIPATION OF ACCUSED JINGGOY ESTRADA IN THE SERIES he never kept P1M from his monthly

76 OF TWICE-A-MONTH COLLECTION AND RECEIPT OF JUETENG PROTECTION MONEY AS BRIBES BETRAYS A PATTERN OF BEHAVIOR AND/OR PARTICIPATION IN, AND BENEFIT FROM, ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA’S OTHER ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES, INCLUDING THE DIVERSION OF PUBLIC FUNDS CONSTITUTING THE SHARE OF ILOCOS SUR IN TOBACCO EXCISE TAXES UNDER REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7171. (p.223) collections

a) Luis Singson testified that: he did not know Jamis Singson, Emma Lim and Vicente Amistad Jinggoy Estrada also received jueteng money and even collected from Bulacan he never asked Singson to exclude him from the expose b) Emma Lim testified that:

she was instructed by Singson to collect money from Bong Pineda and Jinggoy Estrada

she was given a United Overseas Bank personalized check by Jinggoy in March 2000

she deposited in Singson’s account the check given by Jinggoy

II. PARAGRAPH “b” Amended Info: MISAPPROPRIATION OF R.A.7171 FUNDS

PROSECUTION DEFENSE

THE PLAN TO DIVERT, CONVERT AND A) The prosecution failed to show beyond MISAPPROPRIATE PUBLIC FUNDS AMOUNTING reasonable doubt that the accused TO ONE HUNDRED THIRTY MILLION PESOS Estrada committed the act of “amassing, (P130,000,000.00) DERIVED FROM THE accumulating and acquiring” wealth, SHARE OF ILOCOS SUR IN THE TOBACCO particularly, the act described in EXCISE TAXES COLLECTED UNDER REPUBLIC paragraphs “b” of the “Amended ACT NO. 7171 ORIGINATED FROM ACCUSED Information” (Misappropriation of JOSEPH ESTRADA. (p.310) A) THE EVIDENCE R.A.7171 Funds) (p.145) 1) Testimony of ON RECORD SHOWS THAT PUBLIC FUNDS Gov. Singson on withdrawal and delivery AMOUNTING TO ONE HUNDRED THIRTY of money patently incredible (p.157) MILLION PESOS (P130,000,000.00) WAS

77 DIVERTED, CONVERTED AND/OR a) Estrada testified that: MISAPPROPRIATED FOR PRIVATE USE AT THE INSTANCE OF ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA. he did not ask for 10% of the Tobacco (p.314) Excise Tax

1) Luis Singson testified that: he knew Atong Ang but Ang never delivered P130M to his house he agreed to give Estrada 10% of the releases from the Tobacco Excise Tax his wife and son Jinggoy were never given a portion of the P130M Ang told him that the President needed P130M out of the released P200M during the alleged time of delivery, he was already staying at Malacañang he agreed to Estrada’s request because he was afraid that the latter might stop the Singson’s charge is politically motivated release of other funds in the future Singson was blaming him for the Ang gave him the names of Alma Alfaro, misappropriation of the funds Eleuterio Tan and Delia Rajas so that the the money could not fit four boxes as P130M will be coursed through their bank stated by the prosecution witnesses accounts Ang could not carry the money because he and Ang delivered the money to Estrada’s its weight is equivalent to the weight of 2 house in Polk St. ½ sacks of rice

Estrada received P70M b) Jinggoy Estrada testified that:

2) Ma. Elizabeth Balagot and Caridad Rodenas he never received a portion of the P130M (Land Bank branch managers) testified that: Tobacco Excise Tax

P130M was transferred from LBP Vigan to LBP 2) The prosecution’s remaining evidence Shaw reveal Chavit Singson’s complicity in the Alma Alfaro encashed P40M, while three withdrawal of the tobacco excise tax manager’s check, totaling P90 M, was issued funds, nothing more (p.163) for Eleuterio Tan 3) The minor prosecution witnesses do 3) Prosecution: the three manager’s checks not prove the guilt of Pres. Estrada (totaling P90 M) were deposited on 31 August beyond reasonable doubt (p.179) 1998 to Eleuterio Tan’s Westmont Bank B) Assuming the act was committed, the account and were withdrawn in varying particular act described in paragraph “b” amounts on the same day. (on the Misappropriation of R.A.7171 4) Federico Artates and Jamis Singson Funds) was committed by Governor testified that: Chavit Singson, not by accused Estrada.

78 they saw the four boxes of money withdrawn by Tan taken out of Westmont Bank

the money was transported to the house of Ang’s mother before it was delivered, on the same day, to Estrada’s house in Polk St.

B) THE EVIDENCE ON RECORD SHOWS THAT SEVENTY MILLION PESOS (P70,000,000.00) OF SUCH PUBLIC FUNDS DIVERTED, CONVERTED AND/OR MISAPPROPRIATED FOR PRIVATE USE WAS GIVEN TO ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA, WHILE THE REMAINING AMOUNTS OF TWENTY MILLION PESOS (P20,000,000.00) WENT TO HIS WIFE (LOI EJERCITO), FIFTEEN MILLION PESOS (P15,000,000.00) WENT TO HIS SON (ACCUSED JINGGOY ESTRADA), AND TWENTY- FIVE MILLION PESOS (P25,000,000.00) WENT TO HIS FRIEND (ACCUSED ATONG ANG). (p.325)

C) THE BARE DENIALS OF ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA CANNOT OUTWEIGH THE CHAIN OF DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE WHICH PROVES THAT HE BEGAN THE SERIES OF EVENTS WHICH LED TO HIS MISAPPROPRIATION OF PUBLIC FUNDS AMOUNTING ONE HUNDRED THIRTY MILLION PESOS (P130,000,000.00). (p.327)

III. PARAGRAPH “c” Amended Info: COMMISSION FROM SALE OF BELLE SHARES

PROSECUTION DEFENSE

AS CLEARLY BORNE BY THE EVIDENCE, A) The prosecution failed to show beyond ACCUSED ESTRADA TOOK UNDUE reasonable doubt that the accused ADVANTAGE OF HIS OFFICIAL POSITION, Estrada committed the act of “amassing, AUTHORITY, RELATIONSHIP, AND INFLUENCE accumulating and acquiring” wealth, BY DIRECTING, ORDERING AND COMPELLING particularly, the act described in THE PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN OF THE paragraphs “c” of the “Amended SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM (SSS), TO Information” (receiving commission from PURCHASE THREE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE the sale of Belle shares) (p.182) 1)

79 MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE Transaction was perfectly valid and legal, THOUSAND (329,855,000) SHARES OF STOCK and no commission was given to Accused OF BELLE CORPORATION IN THE AMOUNT OF (p.194) SEVEN HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR MILLION SIX HUNDRED TWELVE THOUSAND AND FOUR 2) SSS purchase of Belle shares valid and HUNDRED FIFTY PESOS (P744,612,450.00). regular (p.196) (p.360) 1) Carlos Arellano (former SSS a) Rizaldy Capulong testified that: President) testified that: the purchase of Belle shares was for he and Ding Pascual, were instructed by portfolio trading only Estrada to look at the Belle shares SSS had been buying and selling shares he, in turn, instructed the SSS investment even before October 21, 1999 committee to review the Belle shares 3) Likewise, GSIS purchase was made in he met Estrada a week after in Malacañang accordance with investment policy and Palace, where he also saw Jaime Dichaves rules (p.203) the SSS investment committee concluded that a) Justice Hermogenes Concepcion (GSIS the Belle shares is a good investment chair from July 1998 to June 2004) SSS bought 249 million Belle shares valued at testified that: P783M or an average price of P3.14 per share the purchase of Belle shares satisfies the 2) Federico Pascual (former GSIS President) basic requirements of investment of GSIS testified that: funds he was asked by Estrada during a meeting at the purchase of Belle shares did not Malacañang if GSIS could buy Belle shares exceed the limits laid down by GSIS internal guidelines while he was in London, he was again asked by Estrada, through the telephone, if GSIS he was not informed by Pascual about the could buy Belle shares latter’s conversation with Estrada concerning the Belle shares he called the GSIS Manila office and instructed Reynaldo Palmiery to study the no one from the board of trustees told possible purchase of Belle shares him that Estrada pressured them to buy Belle shares when he returned to the Philippines, GSIS already purchased a total of 351 million Belle b) Reynaldo Palmiery (then chair of the shares valued at P1.1B, equivalent to one GSIS investment committee) testified board seat in the corporation that:

3) Rizaldy Capulong (Assistant Vice President the purchase of Belle shares was made for the SSS Securities Trading and only after the review and evaluation of

80 Management Department) testified that: the purchase of the Belle shares on October 21, 1999 was perfectly valid transaction and in order the investment committee

4)Willie Ng Ocier (then Vice-Chair of Belle GSIS had been trading in Belle shares Corp.) testified that: since 1993 he talked with Jaime Dichavez in 1999 4) No evidence that accused ever received any percentage or commission he was assured by Dichavez that GSIS and from sale of Belle shares (p.218) SSS will purchase the shares of Belle Corp. a) Estrada testified that: he was told by Dichavez that Estrada was asking for a P200M profit commission he did not pressure Arellano and Pascual concerning the Belle shares he did not ask Estrada to confirm what Dichavez told him he only asked Arellano if it would be beneficial to the government to buy the A) AS CLEARLY BORNE BY THE EVIDENCE, Belle shares ACCUSED ESTRADA TOOK UNDUE ADVANTAGE OF HIS OFFICIAL POSITION, he was told by Pascual that the corporate AUTHORITY, RELATIONSHIP, AND INFLUENCE finance department will study it BY DIRECTING, ORDERING AND COMPELLING he called Pascual but their conversation THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER OF was regarding the delayed GSIS benefits THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE INSURANCE SYSTEM (GSIS) TO PURCHASE THREE he might have called Arellano and told HUNDRED FIFTY ONE MILLION EIGHT him to also study the purchase of Belle HUNDRED SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND shares (351,878,000) SHARES OF STOCKS OF BELLE CORPORATION IN THE AMOUNT OF ONE he saw Ocier in Tagaytay Highlands but BILLION ONE HUNDRED TWO MILLION NINE they never talked about commissions HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED SEVEN AND 50/100 PESOS (P1,102,965,607.50). (p.376)

B) ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA TOOK UNDUE B) Assuming the act was committed, the ADVANTAGE OF HIS OFFICIAL POSITION, particular act described in paragraph “c” AUTHORITY, RELATIONSHIP, AND INFLUENCE (receiving commission from the sale of AND DIRECTED, ORDERED AND COMPELLED Belle shares) was committed by Carlos THE GSIS AND THE SSS TO PURCHASE THE Arellano and Federico Pascual

81 SAID SHARES OF STOCK IN BELLE CORPORATION FOR HIS PERSONAL GAIN AND BENEFIT AND TO AMASS, ACCUMULATE AND ACQUIRE BY AND FOR HIMSELF, ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH, THEREBY UNJUSTLY ENRICHING HIMSELF AT THE EXPENSE AND TO THE DAMAGE OF GSIS, SSS, THEIR MEMBERS, THE FILIPINO PEOPLE AND THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES. (p.382)

C) ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA COLLECTED AND RECEIVED COMMISSIONS OR PERCENTAGES BY REASON OF SAID PURCHASES OF SHARES OF STOCK OF BELLE CORPORATION IN THE AMOUNT OF ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-NINE MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND PESOS (P189,700,000.00) WHICH BECAME PART OF THE DEPOSITS TO THE “JOSE VELARDE” ACCOUNT IN EQUITABLE-PCIBANK. (p.392)

D) THE PURCHASE OF THE BELLE SHARES WAS BLATANTLY IMPROVIDENT, MANIFESTLY DISADVANTAGEOUS AND WAS EXECUTED DUE ONLY TO THE UNDUE PRESSURE EXERTED BY ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA ON THE TOP OFFICIALS OF GSIS AND SSS; HOWEVER, EVEN ASSUMING THE SALE ITSELF TO BE REGULAR, ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA IS STILL GUILTY OF PLUNDER FOR THE SERIES OF UNDUE PRESSURE AND INFLUENCE AND AUTHORITY EXERTED OVER MESSRS. PASCUAL AND ARELLANO, FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF RECEIVING P189,700,000.00 IN COMMISSIONS, WHICH AMOUNT ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA ACTUALLY RECEIVED. (p.403)

IV. PARAGRAPH “d” Amended Info: THE ‘JOSE VELARDE’ ACCOUNT

PROSECUTION DEFENSE

82 A) ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA, WITH A) The prosecution failed to show beyond ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY, IS “JOSE VELARDE”: 1) reasonable doubt that the accused ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA, DURING HIS Estrada committed the act of “amassing, TESTIMONY, ADMITTED HAVING SIGNED AS accumulating and acquiring” wealth, “JOSE VELARDE” THE EQUITABLE-PCIBANK particularly, the act described in TRUST DOCUMENTS IN THE PRESENCE OF MS. paragraphs “d” of the “Amended CLARISSA OCAMPO AND ATTY. MANUEL Information” (the ‘Jose Velarde’ account) CURATO. (p.424) (p.231) 1) There are missing elements in the Prosecution evidence which cannot 2) DOCUMENTS AND WITNESSES ATTEST TO be supplied by unreasonable inferences THE FACT THAT NUMEROUS TRANSACTIONS (p.244) IN THE VELARDE ACCOUNT INVOLVING DEPOSITS ALMOST ONE BILLION PESOS 2) Accused Joseph Estrada cannot be (P1,000,000,000.00) WERE MADE THROUGH linked to Jose Velarde account (p.249) LUCENA “BABY” ORTALIZA, ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA’S TRUSTED PERSONAL SECRETARY a) Estrada testified that: AND DESIGNATED HANDLER OF THE he signed documents before Ocampo but ESTRADAS’ BANK ACCOUNTS. (p.463) the signing was a request of his friend, a) Teresa Barcelona (Equitable-PCI Bank Jaime Dichaves Greenhills-Ortigas Branch Manager) testified he was assured by Dichaves that it was that: just an arrangement with the bank Baby Ortaliza made inter-branch deposits to ensuring that Dichavez would pay the the Jose Velarde account loan on time b) Melissa Pascual (former Equitable-PCI Bank 3) True owner of Velarde account Viramall Branch bank teller) testified that: positively identified as Dichaves (p.256) she processed the checks deposited by a) Romuald Dy Tang (former treasurer Ortaliza to the Jose Velarde account and executive vice president of Equitable- PCI Bank) testified that: c) Glyzelyn Bejec testified that: it was Jaime Dichaves who opened the several checks were deposited in the Jose Jose Velarde account Velarde account he and Betty Bagsit handled the Velarde 3) EVIDENCE FOUND DURING THE account for Dichaves HONORABLE COURT’S OCULAR INSPECTION OF THE “BORACAY MANSION” POINTED TO he advised Dichaves to prepare a letter ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA AS THE for the records when Dichaves told him BENEFICIAL AND ACTUAL OWNER OF THE that he wanted to open an account under “BORACAY MANSION”; FURTHER, THE BANK the name of Jose Velarde DOCUMENTS SHOW WITHOUT DOUBT THAT he sometimes saw Dichaves in the bank

83 THE “BORACAY MANSION” WAS PURCHASED BY MONEY WITHDRAWN FROM “JOSE VELARDE’S” CURRENT ACCOUNT NO. 0110- when the latter made withdrawals from 25495-4 IN EQUITABLE-PCIBANK IN THE the Velarde account AMOUNT OF ONE HUNDRED FORTY-TWO MILLION PESOS (PHP142,000,000.00). (p.507) b) Betty Bagsit testified that:

4) SPECIAL TRUST ACCOUNT NO. 858 AT THE Dy Tang was the account officer of Jaime URBAN BANK ADMITTEDLY IN THE NAME Dichaves ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA’S SON, JOSE VICTOR EJERCITO, FUNDED THE “JOSE she sometimes handled the account of VELARDE” ACCOUNT IN THE AMOUNT OF AT Dichaves LEAST ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-TWO MILLION there is no Jose Velarde, it was Dichaves PESOS (PHP182,000,000.00). (p.537) himself

5) THE FACT IS, IT IS CUSTOMARY FOR all transactions in the Velarde account ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA TO SIGN AS were coursed to Dichaves “JOSE” (p.553) 4) Inference that Ortaliza deposited for a) Clarissa Ocampo (Equitable-PCI Bank accused Estrada is based on conjecture official) testified that: (p.258) she brought to Malacañang on February 4, 5) Court cannot assume that the J. V. 2000 an Investment Management Agreement Ejercito account belongs to accused she saw Estrada sign the Investment Joseph Estrada (p.260) Management Agreement using the name “Jose Velarde” to extend a loan to Wellex, Inc.

B) ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA OPENED, B) Assuming the act was committed, the MAINTAINED AND OWNED SAVINGS ACCOUNT particular act described in paragraph “d” NO. 0160-62501-5 IN THE NAME OF “JOSE (the ‘Jose Velarde’ account) was VELARDE” AND CAUSED THE DEPOSIT OF ILL- committed by nameless and unidentified GOTTEN WEALTH AMOUNTING TO THREE individuals BILLION THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY-NINE MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED NINETY-ONE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED FIFTY-NINE AND 09/100 PESOS (PHP3,389,791,659.09). (p.556)

1) PART OF SUCH ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH WAS DERIVED FROM ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA’S UNLAWFUL COMMISSION FROM THE

84 SEPARATE PURCHASES BY THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM (SSS) AND THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE INSURANCE SYSTEM (GSIS) OF BELLE CORPORATION SHARES, WHICH COMMISSION AMOUNTED TO ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-NINE MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND PESOS (PHP189,700,000.00) OBTAINED BY A SERIES OF UNDUE PRESSURE, INFLUENCE AND AUTHORITY EXERTED UPON THE TOP OFFICIALS OF SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM (SSS) AND THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE INSURANCE SYSTEM (GSIS) (p.571)

C) ACCUSED JOSEPH ESTRADA’S BARE DENIALS AND SELF-SERVING HEARSAY ALLEGATIONS CANNOT OVERTURN THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE PRESENTED BY THE PROSECUTION THAT HE IS “JOSE VELARDE.” (p.580)

OTHER DISCUSSIONS

PROSECUTION DEFENSE

V. ON ALLEGED CONSTITUTIONAL DEFENSES: The “Amended Information” does not PREMATURE LOSS OF ALLEGED IMMUNITY sufficiently charge accused Estrada of AND ALLEGED SELECTIVE PROSECUTION plunder under Republic Act No. 7080. A) (p.597) A) A CLAIM OF PREMATURE LOSS OF The information does not allege that the IMMUNITY IS UNAVAILING AND HAD LONG alleged act of “amassing, accumulating BEEN DISCREDITED BY THE SUPREME and acquiring” of wealth was by means COURT(p.597) which constitute “a combination or a series of overt or criminal acts or similar B) A CLAIM OF PREJUDICIAL PUBLICITY IS schemes”; LIKEWISE UNAVAILING AND HAD ALSO BEEN DISCREDITED BY THE SUPREME COURT B) The specific acts alleged to have been (p.600) used as the means of “amassing, accumulating and acquiring” wealth C) A CLAIM OF SELECTIVE PROSECUTION IS (paragraphs a, b, c and d of the ALSO IRRELEVANT AND IMMATERIAL “Amended Information”) on their face do CONSIDERING THAT IT IS NOT AN not appear to constitute a combination or ACCEPTABLE DEFENSE IN CRIMINAL a series of criminal or overt acts or similar

85 PROSECUTIONS UNDER PHILIPPINE JURISDICTION (p.603)

D) A CLAIM OF SELECTIVE, INVIDIOUS AND HASTY PROSECUTION IS ALSO NOW IRRELEVANT AND IMMATERIAL CONSIDERING THAT THE SAME GOES INTO THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION, THE FINDING OF PROBABLE CAUSE AND THE VALIDITY OF THE INFORMATION — MATTERS THAT HAVE LONG BEEN SETTLED NOT ONLY BY THE HONORABLE COURT, BUT ALSO BY THE SUPREME COURT (p.606)

E) ASSUMING FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT THAT A CLAIM FOR SELECTIVE PROSECUTION schemes.” IS AN AVAILABLE DEFENSE IN CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS UNDER PHILIPPINE JURISDICTION, THE SAME IS STILL IRRELEVANT AND IMMATERIAL (p.611)

1) THE PROSECUTION HAS NEVER ENGAGED IN SELECTIVE PROSECUTION. (p.613)

2) SELECTIVE PROSECUTION, EVEN IF TRUE AND AVAILING, GOES MERELY INTO THE MATTER OF REGULARITY IN THE PERFORMANCE OF OFFICIAL FUNCTIONS, BUT DOES NOT ALLOW AN ACCUSED, OTHERWISE GUILTY BASED ON THE EVIDENCE, TO ESCAPE CRIMINAL LIABILITY (p.617)

Posted in: Governance, Justice and Rule of Law, Politics, Stories, i Report, i Report index Tags: joseph estrada, plunder trial

86 APPENDIX C. SUMMARY OF DATA, INTERVIEW SCHEDULE

1INTERVIEW SCHEDULE: FILE NO: ______CASE NO: ______

NAME: ______AGE: ______NICK/CODE NAME: ______CIVIL STATUS: ______ADDRESS: NO. Of CHILDREN: _____ CURRENT: ______RELIGION: ______PROVINCIAL: ______PRACTICING: YES NO WORK/JOB BEFORE: ______EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT: ______

FILED COMPLAINT: ______

COURT: ______88 BRANCH: ______JUDGE NAME: ______LAWYERS NAME: ______ORGANIZATION: ______PLEA: ______COMMENT: ______1. HOW’S YOUR ECONOMIC STATUS? ______

POOR MIDDLE RICH OTHER/S: ______2. ARE YOU THE ONE WORKING? ______HOW MUCH DO YOU EARN IN A DAY? ______3. DO YOU KNOW WHO FILED THE COMPLAINT? ______

4. WHEN IS IT FILED/ WHERE? ______

5. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR LITIGATION? ______.

6. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR STAY HERE IN MCJ? ______.

7. HOW LONG HAD YOU BEEN DETAINED? ______

8. DO YOU HAVE A GROUP (PANGKAT) HERE? ______WHY DID YOU JOIN IT/WHY NOT? ______

9. WHEN ARE YOU EXPECTING YOUR PROMULGATION? ______WHY IS IT? ______

1 Interview are done in random regardless of criminal offence the only required category is distinction between private and public lawyers.