2 Aquino decisions further weaken justice system — rights group

President Benigno S. Aquino III’s actions on two recent high-profile issues demonstrate just how highly politicized and “un-independent" the country’s justice system is, and could even worsen the situation, a Hong Kong-based rights group said on Friday. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) expressed fears that Aquino’s recent decisions, to grant amnesty to the soldiers charged for various rebellious acts, and to recommend reduced charges against specific officials held responsible for the August 23 hostage fiasco, undermine and further weaken the country’s justice and prosecution systems. Aquino's decisions “had further subjected the justice department and its attached agency, the National Prosecution Service (NPS), to political control and undermining," and “demonstrate his outright disregard for the prosecution system," the AHRC said. In a statement posted on the AHRC website, the group bewailed the fact that while the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the NPS are those chiefly tasked with probing and prosecuting criminal cases in court, they are in reality “underdogs and at the mercy of the President." On Tuesday, Aquino signed a proclamation granting amnesty to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and other soldiers involved in the Oakwood Mutiny in July 2003, the February 2006 Marine standoff, and the November 2007 Manila Peninsula siege—all considered as uprisings against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now Pampanga congresswoman. Although the approval of both chambers of Congress is needed before Proclamation 50 could take effect, Aquino issued it before a Makati court was about to promulgate its decision on rebellion charges lodged against the soldiers, AHRC noted. Under the law, granting amnesty and executive clemency is under the president’s discretion. But when this power is exercised based on political considerations and disregards the judicial process, the decision borders on being an abuse of this power, the group said. AHRC also scored Aquino for choosing not to file criminal charges against Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, Interior and Local Government Secretary Rico E. Puno and then Police Director General Jesus A. Verzosa, against the recommendations of a government panel that reviewed the hostage crisis. The group also noted that the country's very system of justice was deeply politicized and “subject to political control." The NPS is under the DOJ, whose head, Secretary Leila de Lima, in turn is a political appointee of the President and serves at his disposal, it noted. The president's power and control extends, not only to his appointee De Lima, but also to all the state and public prosecutors under the DOJ, the group further bewailed. Under Philippine law, the Office of the President also has the power to impose disciplinary sanctions, such as taking away the salaries and benefits and suspending state prosecutors anywhere in the country. The President can order a review of cases. The AHRC thus renewed its call to consider as urgent pending legislation to afford the NPS its independence and freedom from political control. “The future of the prosecution of criminal cases in the country, particularly of cases involving the worst forms of rights violations perpetrated by politically influential persons, relies heavily on the independence of the justice system, the group noted. The group also urged the president to pardon over 96,000 prisoners all over the country who had been recommended for pardon by the Board of Pardons and Parole.—JV, GMANews.TV