Professional Documents
Culture Documents
NON- PRACTICABILITY
It is not feasible to enforce the jury
system in the Philippines because of:
1. Financial constraints-- there is a need
to provide the jurors with lodging, meals,
and an allowance the entire time that
they are serving. Given the already
modest salaries that judges and other
court employees are receiving, a budget
for jury members (numbering 12) is
clearly unrealistic.
2. Cultural difficulties-- In most
countries, people consider it their civic
obligation to serve their jury duty, the
United of States included. They take
pride in it, and try to carry out this duty
as best as possible. In the Philippines,
however, the maturity of most people
toward civic responsibility is still wanting
in many ways. Consider how difficult it is
to get witnesses to appear in court for
cases where they have no personal
stakes. Imagine how much more difficult
it would be to require disinterested
citizens to leave their jobs and their
families in order to sit as a juror for as
long as it takes to finish a case.
3. English proficiency-- If we had a jury
system, every citizen may, at one time
or another, be called upon to render jury
duty. But how do we address the fact
that a fairly large segment of our
population has not completed college
education? Court proceedings are done
in English.