With all the evidence, documentary and testimonial, that the Congressional hearings and other official investigations have unearthed this country’s private-sector lawyers would have been ready, weeks ago, to do battle with the flood-control malefactors.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. must have received word that the Filipino people were becoming impatient with his administration’s response to the worst scandal in the government’s history and were counting the days that have elapsed since the start of operations of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) that he created to deal with the scandal.
About a week ago, President Marcos called a press conference to deal with the palpably growing impatience of the Filipino people. Mr. Marcos, a non-lawyer told his audience that prosecution cases have to be brought forward on the basis of strong evidence, otherwise they risk being dismissed. Gathering strong evidence that will sustain a case takes time, the Chief Executive said, and the government will take the time necessary to obtain, such evidence. Mr. Marcos ended the press conference with this forthright statement: “I have a choice between handling a case quickly and handling a case properly; I will choose to handle a case properly.”
The option that President Marcos spoke of suggests one of two things – either (1) that lawyers, specifically government lawyers, are incapable of producing good work if they have to work speedily or (2) that government lawyers, and other lawyers for that matter, will be able to produce good cases, including good prosecution cases, only if they are given much time within which to do their work. In other words, Mr. Marcos was telling the Filipino people that limitation of time and quality of work are opposed to one another.
The Chief Executive’s opinion in this regard is unwarranted, insensitive to the need of the times and damaging to the reputation of the Philippine legal profession.
The legal services of the government – especially the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) – have on their staff lawyers who are highly competent and are capable of producing strong prosecutional work under difficult conditions, including limited time. Their difficult work is rendered easier when abundant documentary and testimonial evidence exists upon which to build strong cases; this is the situation in the flood-control fraud cases. At this point, the prosecutors of DOJ and OSG are already capable of putting together dismissal-proof cases against the erring DPWH personnel, legislators and contractors.
In saying what he said, President Marcos demonstrated insensitivity to the mood of the Filipino people. The people are mad, Mr. President. They want bad things to happen to the malefactors at the earliest possible time. What you said was the most wrong thing at the most wrong time.
Finally, without intending to do so, President Marcos did a disservice to the Philippine legal profession. The legal staff of the top law firms in this country include lawyers who can compare with the best lawyers in this part of the world. You didn’t have to tell them that cases filed with Philippine courts must be supported by evidence that renders them impervious to dismissal; they already know that.
With all the evidence, documentary and testimonial, that the Congressional hearings and other official investigations have unearthed this country’s private-sector lawyers would have been ready, weeks ago, to do battle with the flood-control malefactors.
In sum Mr. President the option that you spoke of does not exist as a rule, and it does not exist under the present circumstances. Limited time and good legal work can go together.
(llagasjessa@yahoo.com)
