Too poor to post bail, thousands spend years in jail without conviction

Delia Israel was pregnant when she was thrown behind bars on murder charges some 18 years ago. It was within the walls of her prison cell that she ended up giving birth to her baby, who was immediately taken away from her.

 

She could have easily enjoyed temporary freedom years before and watched her baby grow up, if only she could pay the P30,000 bail bond. Problem is, she didn't have the money, an amount some Filipinos spend for a designer handbag.

With freedom dependent on the ability to pay, the nation's jails are yet another realm where social injustice reigns.

"Iniisip ko pa rin ang pamilya ko, ang mga anak ko lalo ngayon. Ang mga anak ko, watak-watak na ngayon. Hindi ko na sila makita," said the despondent Delia in a special report on GMA News TV's News To Go.

 

Delia was recently released from prison, but only after she pleaded guilty to a lesser crime of homicide, which carried with it a shorter prison term of between eight and 14 years. She had already been in jail longer than if she was convicted from the very start.

 

Detainees like Delia are victims of jail reform advocates consider a flawed bail-bond system, which is based on set penalties and not on an accused person's financial capability to post bail or the evidence on hand.

 

The inequitable bail system compounds a slow judicial system that allows cases to drag on for 18 years or even longer. According to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, there are more detainees with pending cases than convicts in Philippine jail facilities.

All of these prisoners without convictions are considered innocent under the law. Yet they are being punished as if they were already guilty. The ones with bailable offenses but without the money to post bail are, in effect, being punished for being poor.

 

'Dysfunctional jail system'

 

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno described as "dysfunctional" the current jail system in the Philippines, a system that forces inmates to take turns in sleeping inside cramped detention cells.

 

"While it is not yet a detainee's turn, he will have to stand up while another one takes a nap... This in itself is condemnable, even before they are sentenced," Sereno said during the public interviews of candidates for the Sandiganbayan's presiding justice conducted by the Judicial and Bar Council on Thursday.

 

"For many of these prisoners, they have already accepted that a life in prison—while their cases are pending—are already their alternative lives. This is alarming to me," she added.

 

Sereno said the court is already reviewing rules on the possible early release of certain detainees to help decongest prison cells.

 

"[Also] I really request the DILG [Department of Interior and Local Government] to make sure to implement a tracking system that is accurate and modern and would give the benefit of immediately understanding the condition and status of prisoners inside detention cells," she added.

 

Latest available data from the BJMP shows that its jails currently accommodate a total of 72,934 prisoners in the country's 17 regions—68,702 or around 94 percent of them are still "detainees" or have not yet been sentenced.

 

Over at the Bureau of Corrections, there are almost 37,000 convicts, most of them (around 21,000) staying at the national penitentiary or the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.

 

The BJMP detains accused individuals with pending cases, and those serving a prison term of three years or below. The BuCor, meanwhile, keeps prisoners who have been sentenced to imprisonment of more than three years.

 

72 laws, 258 new courts

 

More local courts are needed to help speed up cases and de-congest the courts. But during the 14th Congress, under the Arroyo administration, four laws were passed creating only 10 additional regional trial courts (RTCs).

 

In the next Congress, however, President Benigno Aquino III enacted in 2012 and 2013 a total of 72 laws creating 258 first and second level courts, consisting of regional, metropolitan, and municipal trial courts.

 

"We agreed with the position taken by our lawmakers given that everyone recognizes the need to decongest our courts plus the fact that they need to be accessible to most people," deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told GMA News Online on Friday.

 

Of these new courts, 165 are regional trial courts which would add to the current RTCs which number a little under 1,000 branches nationwide.

 

Nine of these laws created 62 metropolitan trial courts (MeTCs), and nine other laws created 31 municipal trial courts (MTCs).

 

Among the new laws, Republic Act 10454, which was enacted last April 8, created the most number of courts—22 additional courts, 16 of them are RTCs and 9 are MTCs in Cavite province.

 

Just a week after that, RA 10480 was signed, creating 22 additional branches of MeTCs in Metro Manila to be stationed in Quezon City.

 

Court Administrator Midas Marquez, who supervises all courts nationwide, welcomed the creation of the new courts. 

 

"If there are more courts, cases can be raffled to more courts. That means fewer cases for each court," Marquez told GMA News Online.

 

Marquez said he actively attended congressional committee hearings and gave his recommendations to lawmakers on the creation of the almost 300 new courts.

 

For her part, Persida Acosta, chief of the Public Attorney's Office which extends legal assistance to underprivileged people who can't afford lawyers, said aside from revisiting the Philippine Bail-Bond System, out-of-court settlement should likewise be promoted to lessen case congestion.

 

"Ako mismo, pino-promote ko ang Alternative Dispute Resolution. Kaysa tumambak sila ng tumambak sa husgado, magtatagal ng lima o sampung taon, minsan nakakamatayan na iyon kaso. Ang punto doon is ayusin na lamang out of court," she said.

 

Other measures

 

Apart from jacking up the number of trial courts in the country, several measures, introduced several years back but only implemented under Sereno's leadership, have been put in place to help solve the huge backlog in Philippine courts.

 

In September last year, the high court approved new guidelines on using "judicial affidavits" to speed up the resolution of cases by cutting in half the period for presenting evidence. It took effect in January 2012.

 

Judicial affidavits are sworn statements containing the witness' testimony in question-and-answer form. They are usually used in place of the traditional direct testimony to expedite the presentation of evidence. 

 

On June 14, the high court rolled out a computer-based system dubbed "eCourt" that helps court employees organize and monitor case workflows, from filing to implementation. It also helps court employees, judges, and even the public quickly monitor the status of cases electronically. 

 

The system is currently being pilot tested in all Quezon City Regional Trial Courts, for eventual use in all courts nationwide.

 

Sereno, during the launch of the eCourt sytem, said a fully computerized docketing and case-processing mechanism would finally put an end to "wrangling through human intermediation."

 

"Sa mga mahilig [makialam] sa mga kaso, tapos na ang mga araw niyo," the chief justice warned.

 

For her part, QC court staff member Maria Estrella Abarcar told GMA News Online in an interview: "The new computerized system is beautiful. It can be easily accessed by anybody who wants to verify something without having to look at court records."

 

Abarcar is a staff member of QC Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of RTC Branch 221, which is handling the 58 murder cases stemming from the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

 

Meanwhile, court administrator Marquez on June 18 led the simultaneous hearing and decision-making in the five most populated jail facilities in the country.

 

Dubbed "Judgment Day," courts in Manila and Quezon City in Metro Manila; Cebu City; Davao City; and Angeles City in Pampanga heard and decided on cases on the spot, in an effort to decongest both Philippine court dockets and prison cells. 

 

By the end of the day, a total of 172 detainees were ordered released by courts in the five cities, all in one day. There are thousands of others, some jailed for years, still awaiting a decision on their fate.  —With a report from Patricia Denise Chiu/KG/RSJ/HS, GMA News