The Philippine justice system, I’m sorry to say, is in the pits. Oh, this has been said countless times before. But recently I had a good look at just how bad the situation is. With the forward strides that our country’s IT industry has been making, it’s sad and frustrating that a highly necessary institution of ours is stuck in the Medieval Ages.
My friend Harold B., a fresh grad who’s full of potential and hope, was wrongfully incarcerated three months ago. He was released just last week: he was found to have had nothing to do at all with the illegal recruitment case against an agency that the police raided that time.
Harold just had the misfortune of being in the company premises during the raid. He wasn’t an employee, his services as a Japanese-language instructor were merely retained for the assessment of their lessons. This overseas recruitment agency apparently offered classes in the Japanese language. He was asked to do this because he graduated from the Mindanao Kokusai Daigaku — the only college in Davao that requires 18 units of Nihongo in all courses — and because Harold is an instructor at the Jojie Ilagan Career Center. Beyond that arrangement, he had no knowledge whatsoever of that agency’s activities.
It could’ve been me. If I were the one approached to evaluate their Nihongo classes, there’d have been no reason for me to refuse. That realization sent a chill down my spine. But then again, my family has some political connections, so maybe it would have been different if it had been me. And there’s the rub.
Harold comes from a not very well-to-do family. He had no access to good attorneys, and none of his relatives are well-connected politically or socially. And that’s why it took three months before he was set free. If only he’d had a competent lawyer, he’d have been released after no more than three days! Imagine, there was no evidence at all that he was part of the agency’s allegedly illegal activities. But the police hauled him off just the same along with the more guilty-looking parties.
When I saw Harold again for the first time after his ordeal, I was very relieved that he appeared to be the same good-natured fellow. But losing your freedom for that long can change a person… He’s always been bubbly and happy and even innocent (or naïve), ever since I got to know him more than 5 years ago. I pray that my friend, in spite of this experience, will recover quickly and pick up the pieces of his career very soon.
According to some people I’ve talked to about this, Harold is one of the lucky ones. If that’s the case, what hope do we have of solving society’s ills when we can’t even deliver meaningful justice to the people?
2:02 pm on 15 Jul 2007
Hello, I’m a frequent visitor of your blog. But when I couldn’t help but leave a comment on this one. That was injustice! How come umabot ng 3 months? Was he charged with anything? As in an actual case? Kasi if he was imprisoned without any charges at all he could very well sue those asses in uniform! Those nincompoops deserve to be put back where they belong - 6 feet undergound. Kainis.
4:46 pm on 15 Jul 2007
Hello, Maying. Thanks for visiting my blog!
It was truly a nearly unforgivable injustice, what was done to my friend. And no, there was no charge — how could they charge him when there was no shred of any evidence at all to even justify his arrest!