Manila: Farmers are demonstrating for their rights.The Philippine Legal System (contextualization to the issue of Legal Harassments).
The Philippines’ law system works under the framework of the Civil Law tradition. There are two types of applicable law:
The Revised Penal Code, and
The Rules of Court.
The following figure describes the, to the legal harassment, relevant structure and hierarchy of the Branches of the Philippine Government:
Executive Legislative Judiciary
↓ ↓ ↓
Department of Justice Congress Supreme Court
↓ ↓
Prosecutor Judges of lower courts
Dynamics of a trialed case:
Upon this premise there are two ways to apprehend a suspect of a crime:
Warrantless arrest: The suspect is caught in flagrante delicto, meaning, caught in the act of committing an offense.
Filing of cases: A preliminary process takes place before the apprehension. Depending on the sentence of the accused crime [a) 6 years plus 1 day or above, b) 6 years or below] the process can vary. The general framework of the process for both cases looks somewhat like this:
Accusation filed in a police station to a police officer
↓
Accusation filed in court (2 possible outcomes) Warrant issued
Warrant not issued
It varies between the sentence times as follows:
6 years plus 1 day or above:
Accusation filed in a police station to a police officer
↓
Preliminary investigation: determination of probable cause by the prosecutor (2 p. o.) case rejected
“Information” (case is elevated to Judiciary)
↓
Judge decides if guilty or not.
6 years or below (most common):
Accusation filed in a police station to a police officer
↓
Case immediately filed with the judge (no need for preliminary investigation)
Lately, there have been a, relatively to the population size, high amount of new cases filed against farmers in the Bondoc peninsula. It is to be noticed that most of these new cases are against petitioners for land. Some of the landlords found it effective to use their political and economical power to influence the legal system in their favor as an alternative to the physical and other types of direct harassments towards the CARP petitioners. These are known as Legal Harassments and are another form of abuse against the Human Rights agreement. These manipulations also take place in favor of the landlords when they are being accused of a crime, leaving many cases in impunity.
Most common types of legal harassment:
Lack of Notice: According to the Universal Human Rights treaty, to which the Philippine legal system keeps within, when a person has been accused of committing a crime, previously to their apprehension a notice must be issued and delivered within a “reasonable” time. This means, the suspect should not be arrested without previous notice, nor should they receive the notice the night before being arrested, which is the case in many of the apprehensions, where the warrant is the first and only thing the farmer sees right before getting arrested. In many cases the notice is also delivered by the goons in the moment of the apprehension. This is a clear violation of human rights, since it should be a state representative (i.e. a police officer who “services” the notice).
Note: The warrant is the document presented when getting arrested to prove that the procedure is supported by the state. The notice is the document that warns you of the apprehension procedure with anticipation.
In some cases the landowner has some type of power or influence on the judges or prosecutor, for they are a relative of the landowner or because they are being bribed. This can be witnessed in the following ways:
Landowner being accused of a crime: Given the case the prosecutor decides to not find a probable cause to accuse the landowner or the judge decides in favor of the landowner. (Note: The subjective discretion of the prosecutor is considered as legal in this procedure)
Farmer being accused of a crime: In both cases (6 years or below and 6 years plus 1 day or above) the prosecutor and/or the judge can influence the decision against the farmer)
Decision on the sentence (jail time/bail): The bail is issued according to how many coconuts are being declared of being stolen. The only evidence that accounts to this procedure is the “affidavit” that normally a man of the landlord (e.g. his accounting clerk) issued. Many times the Philippine law stipulation of not issuing “excessive” bails is also being violated.
Cases filed against farmers:
Malicious mischief (e.g. destroying barbed wire, killing a cow)
Trespassing (Note: as a peasant you can be accused of this crime all of a sudden, since they reside on the landlord’s land)
Attempted homicide
Arson (e.g. burning a house)
Qualified Theft (Note: The accusation of theft alone implies that in the act there was no violence involved and it doesn’t have a penalty. This accusation receives the special status of qualified when a relation of confidence has been broken [e.g. one steals from one’s job giver]. Under Philippine law [which was influenced by the coconut-land landowners of the times when the Philippine constitution was put together] any case of theft of coconuts automatically receives the status of qualified. This is not the case of any other type of crop)
Remedy alternative for justice:
Since the Department (DOJ) of Justice has power over the prosecutors one can appeal at it at the Preliminary Investigation level. This allows extending the time frame a little longer. Note: This only applies in the cases of sentences 6 years plus 1 day or above. The DOJ has no jurisdiction on the judges.
