Reflections of the View Behind Bars:

The Philippines: Locked Up/101. December 13, 2018 Introspection

The Philippines is a land ruled by laws not by men. It is ruled by laws which acknowledge that
there are human rights, rights which are obtained by birth need no other requirement to obtain, rights
which cannot be alienated, rights which are universal. Yet, we have developed a justice system which
promotes abuse and violations of said human rights.
The 5 Pillars of the Philippine Criminal Justice system are the law enforcement process, the
prosecution process, the judicial process, the penal and correctional process, and the community.
Complementarily, they function in order to ensure that the system works and the laws are upheld;
however, this only works when the parts themselves obey the ambit of their authority and respect the
boundaries set in order to prevent abuse.
As shown in The Philippines: Locked Up/101, there is a problem in multiple parts of the
Criminal Justice System. To summarize, the law enforcement process neglects the legal procedures and
abuses their power through illegal arrests thus contributing to the overpopulation of our jails, the
prosecution process is bogged down by the relentless cases due to the sheer amount of detained
individuals, the judicial process is then left unenforced leading to incarcerations without trials or
convictions, the correctional process therefore cannot be said to be proper as a detainee not guilty of a
crime should not undergo the correctional phase, and finally, even when the detainees or convicts have
obtained their freedom, they are still under fear of retribution from the police and are unable to reintegrate
in the community.
Through this, we can see that the Criminal Justice System is highly connected and that the
problem of one process is magnified and exacerbated by the flaws of the other. At the same time, the out
of sight, out of mind mentality practiced by the Filipino Citizenry, including myself, has left the
unfortunate victims of the Criminal Justice System with little to no chance of having a fair shot at
freedom.
I have realized that I have hardly even thought about the plight of the detainees for most of the
quarantine. I guess the world or our world in this country at least has gotten so insane that it leaves us
unable or unwilling to continuously champion a cause we cannot consistently see. It is as if the flood of
incoming issues and problems has rendered us numb and exhausted. It is absolutely depressing as people
have started targeting the individuals who are fighting for these detainees.
There has been a string of murders the recently. Said crimes were against activists and said
crimes are rumored to have been perpetrated by the police or at least supported by them. There have been
efforts to spread awareness about this but that has started to feel like a practice in futility. Personally, I
have corresponded not only with those who are affiliated with the Armed Forces of the Philippines but
also a criminology dean of a different school. Their stands on issues are set in stone and they hardly
acknowledge the effect their statements which tag activist groups or their defense of the unnecessary use
of lethal violence has on the Filipino people. It has even come to the point that I would willingly just
block these statements to lessen the anxiety that I feel whenever I read them.
 I gave up trying, I gave up caring, even if it was just by a little. I got overwhelmed and decided
that enough was enough even though it is my duty as a law student and as a Filipino to continuously fight
and argue for what is right and proper.
The advent of fake news and the discreditation of trustworthy news outlets has also contributed to
the state of things. It comes down to the question of “who is watching the watcher?”. Who makes the
institutions responsible for administering the processes accountable?
It is us. We are not only part of the community, the last pillar of the system, we are also the last
defense towards the abuse of the system. Yet we are so easily distracted.
It may be unfair to expect so much from the population, which is barely surviving the pandemic,
but this pandemic will pass, and when it does, what society are we left with? If by some unfortunate event
or by the machinations of those who abuse the system I am forced to live in a prisoner’s shoes, I do not
think I will have the heart to quell whatever rage I have.