Supreme Court Justice’s Effort to Reform the Philippine Legal

System
 In 2007, Emily Green wrote in the Washington Post, “The Philippines, scarred by political
assassinations and corruption, is looking to its new chief justice for salvation. And in his first nine
months in office, Reynato Puno has moved with lightning speed to set up a more independent
judiciary charged with enforcing a new code of legal responsibility. Hoping to use the courts to
remake Philippine society, Puno has embarked on a campaign to end the widespread
assassinations of journalists and political activists. [Source: Emily Green, Washington Post, October
1, 2007 *~*]
 “Puno is an improbable revolutionary. He was appointed to the bench by the late dictator Ferdinand
Marcos and, at 67, has only three years before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. Yet
this time limit has only stirred Puno to accelerate the pace of his agenda -- to clean up the
notoriously corrupt judiciary and create legal accountability for the recent string of political
assassinations. In an interview, Puno said the killings are "like a replay of the last years of the
Marcos government." *~*
 “Puno, a man so reserved he barely moves in a lengthy interview, has been agile in pushing all
segments of the Philippine government to act. Under his leadership, the Supreme Court has called
for the creation of a separate court system to handle assassination cases so that powerful local
interests cannot influence judicial outcomes. *~*
 “In July, the Supreme Court hosted a national summit on the killings. Nearly every high-ranking
government bureaucrat and official -- including the house speaker and the military chief of staff --
attended the two-day event. The Supreme Court justices personally led breakout sessions. The
summit made national headlines for its bold recommendations. Summit participants proposed that
the government and courts adopt the doctrine of "command responsibility" as described in the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court. The doctrine holds that a military officer is responsible for
crimes committed by his subordinates and for failing to prevent or punish those crimes. A second
major summit recommendation was to create a law allowing civilian-led searches of military camps,
a notion that the military chief also said he considers preposterous. *~*
 “Puno has also been aggressive in holding colleagues in the judiciary accountable. He has already
fired one appeals court judge for gross incompetence and corruption. Other investigations are
underway and Puno expects more dismissals soon. Surprisingly, though, finding critics of Puno is
not easy. His fellow judges revere him. Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago called Puno the best chief
justice she has ever seen. Human rights lawyers for the first time have something good to say about
the legal system. Even the military chief called Puno a friend. "Any criticism of Puno is not the usual
Philippine style -- that this guy is corrupt," said Raul Pangalangan, former dean of the University of
the Philippines College of Law and a Puno admirer. Instead, most critics focus on Puno's decisions
and left-leaning ideology. His decision validating the rights of indigenous people to ancestral claims,
for example, was called "quaint" and "idyllic" in one critical blog. *~*