The Philippine Constitution of 1987 enshrines that bail is a matter of right. Persons charged with capital offenses can file petition for bail and persons charged with non-capital offenses can file a motion to reduce amount of bail if they cannot afford the bail amount recommended by prosecutors and approved by judges. This suggests that all persons, except when evidence of guilt is strong for capital offenses, should be able to avail of temporary liberty while undergoing trial. That is what is enshrined in the Constitution.
The reality however is that 137,000 accused in BJMP jails and another 35,000 accused in provincial jails are detained while undergoing trial. Majority of these Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) did not file a petition for bail and/or motion to reduce bail. In fact, they are not familiar with these Constitutionally enshrined remedies.
Interviews with PAO lawyers suggest that detainees seldom requested them to file these petitions and motions, and due to their workloads, do not have the time to initiate the petitions and motions themselves. In fact, PAO lawyers in big urban areas meet their clients for the first time only during arraignment, precluding them to develop an effective bail strategy. Interviews with judges, on the other hand, suggests that they seldom receive petitions for bail and motions to reduce amount of bail, precluding them to make a decision. Thus, even if the detainees had stayed in jail for a year or two, without legal representation, they cannot release the inmates on bail. Jail paralegal officers are in the best position to remedy this legal anomaly. They should educate the inmates of the right to file a petition for bail and motion to reduce amount of bail. They can help inmates file an ex-parte motion or they coordinate with inmates' PAO lawyers to file the remedies. This will then activate the court to come up with a ruling. Judges can utilize the length of stay of inmates in detention to reduce amount of bail or to grant inmates release on personal recognizance. For example, an inmate who had stayed in jail for 6 months (the length of time set by the Continuous Trial Circular of the Supreme Court as the time limit for case disposition) will have his bail reduced by 50%, and for a year of stay by 100%. Inmates released on this mechanism will still attend court hearings to determine guilt or innocence. If this procedure is followed, I estimate that jail population will be reduced by at least 85 percent (53 percent of cases are bailable and only 18 percent of the non-bailable cases are convicted, meaning there is no strong evidence) leading to enormous savings from the PhP 20 Billion budget allotted to our jail system. It does not take rocket science to determine what ails our justice system. It simply needs people with the motivation and heart to do what is right!
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