Justice?

(photo credit: www.interaksyon.com)

The DOJ Secretary is bristling at what she imagines is the temerity of former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes’ suit against her for contempt.

The suit stems from her statements to the media saying that the Court of Appeals ruling in favor of dropping the charges against Reyes was arrived at by “foul and illicit means.” She now says “something happened” that led to the Court of Appeals ruling that dismissed the charges against Reyes.

However, she also admits that she cannot back up what she allegedly knows, adding that she cannot do so “without solid proof.”

It seems that the clear intent of Secretary De Lima is to add to the charges now filed against her.

As a member of Cabinet and the head of a department called “justice” it would do her well to keep her cool and let the proceedings take their course. However, it does not seem to be in her personality or propensity to watch her words when speaking to media.

In fact, she says, she refuses to be “cowed into silence” apparently mistaking the department for a soapbox.

The DOJ is not just a prosecutorial arm, it is in charge of determining probable cause, that is, its prosecutors hear cases to weed out those that are nuisance ones, ones that do not have sufficient evidence to withstand the scrutiny of trial and cases that are merely filed to inconvenience or harass the respondents.

As such her people and she must act with cold impartiality and not take sides.

In her case, a panel of prosecutors rendered a finding of no probable cause against the former Palawan Governor.

Instead of allowing the case to be reviewed by her own office on appeal, as would be the normal course of events, she instead created a second panel to repeat what the first panel had already done.

The Court of Appeals then said that such creation of a second panel was done with grave abuse of authority and struck down its findings. The “something” that “happened” may be that the Court of Appeals saw right through her ploy to have the findings come from a panel instead of her office. Now why is that?

We see a disturbing trend at the DOJ, where findings are based not on evidence, but on the popularity of one side and sometimes with reckless disregard for rule, procedure or law.

This is, after all, the same Justice Secretary who recommended that the President say that the Tausug warriors of the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu may be held for inciting to war.

It was PssstCentro that pointed out that the best that could be filed was illegal possession of firearms, which the DOJ appears to have done – but only after the President was made to mouth off that ridiculous charge. Bad form, DOJ. You let your principal suffer for your bad advice.

The same DOJ Secretary disregarded a Supreme Court order in the case of Gloria Arroyo, and seems to have sided with dubious complainants in the Aman Futures scam, disregarding evidence in favor of swiftly filing the cases.

Oh well. The case for contempt should be closely monitored. The Secretary must learn her lessons and perhaps it is best that a court teach her the meaning of the term, “impartial.”

By: Atty. Trixie Cruz-Angeles
(Source : PSSST! Centro)




To know more about Trixie Cruz Angeles, check out: I AM TRIXIE CRUZ