A number of judges, prosecutors, and public defense lawyers retire, get promoted, transfer to other positions or pass away every year, making their official positions vacant. In such cases, criminal trial hearings are usually frozen until the positions are filled. Based on my recent survey, it takes at least 6 months, and in some cases, more than a year or two, before the vacancies are filled. Meanwhile, the accused stay in jail if their cases are non-bailable or if they cannot provide the amount of bail. The delay in filling up the vacancy thus leads to prolonged trial detention, where detainees stay in jail for as long as 5 to 10 years, sometimes 15 years, and they are not convicted yet. In one city jurisdiction, there were four vacant judges, three vacant prosecutors, and two vacant PAO lawyers, leading to a freeze of hearings for 748 detainees for more than a year (and counting). Up until that point, the government has spent PhP 19,111,400 (computed as 748 inmates times 365 days times PhP 70 per day) for food alone for these inmates while waiting for their cases to resume.
That is PhP 19 Million which could have been used for health and education of our young people. This money could also have been used to improve court management systems and improve jail conditions. And take note: this figure only comes in one jail. Nationwide, thousands of inmates are waiting for at least a year for these vacancies to be filled. Additionally, prolonged trial detention makes citizens legally cynical as many detainees are eventually found innocent. Prolonged trial detention erodes the people's trust to the justice system.
Question: Why is it taking that long to fill up the vacancies? Entry level pay for judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers are very competitive, thus a number of lawyers have expressed interest in joining government legal service. So there are pool of ready applicants waiting to be tapped. Suggestions: The Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, and the Public Attorneys' Office should have a steady pool of judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers, respectively, who should be ready to assume the positions at any moment. There should be continuous recruitment, training, and deployment that is guided by statistical projections of vacancies. (I can volunteer to do this!!). Finally, all appointments are signed in Malacanang for prosecutors and judges, these must be done expeditiously. In the case of retirement, which is predictable, an appointee-in-waiting should be identified at least 6 months before retirement so a proper turn over of the cases can be observed. This will tremendously help in the faster disposition of cases and shorten trial detention.
All those working in the criminal justice field, any other thoughts?
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