Hi cely,

Thank you so much for your reply. It will be a very sad day indeed if there will come a time that there will be connivance between the judges and lawyers in deliberately delaying the speedy disposition of criminal cases.

That situation is not good for the person accused of any crimes especially “heinous crimes” where you cannot post any bail whatsoever.

The hard thing is that while the case is on-going the accused is languishing in jail for a long period of time only to be finally acquitted and release by the Supreme Court if ever that the case reached the court of last resort.

We know that the jail condition in our country is far from being ideal. Almost all jails are crowded and too full of prisoners. The food being fed to the prisoners are not that good either.

We cannot understand why it took so long before any given criminal case, say for example drug cases like sale of “shabu” could be disposed and terminated by the court.

Almost 60%-70% of the criminal cases pending trial in the Philippines are mostly drug cases which continue to clog every court docket.

I think there is a need for strict monitoring and regular inventory of all drug cases from all court so that the right to speedy trial of every accused will be a living reality.

Hi acelawrites,

Thanks again for your comment. Yes you are right—there’s always the great danger that innocent people wrongly accused of crime may die if and when the death penalty will be revive or re-impose in our country.

It is common knowledge that those who are being charged for the crime or offense of Illegal Drugs whether for possession or sale are always those who comes from the poor sector of our society.
The same is true for those being convicted for the sale of drugs—those who comes from the poor sector of our society or almost always on the poverty level.

The present campaign of the Duterte Administration against drugs or its “war on drugs” and the possible revival or re-imposition of the capital punishment or death penalty are two interconnected things.

On the level of principle yes we need to fight the drug menace in the Philippine society due to its pernicious effect which is quite obvious and is self-explanatory. However, such campaign against drugs much always be done in accordance and within the limitation provided for by law.

As they say, there’s always a thin blue line between law enforcement and taking the law into one’s hand i.e. EJK or the rise of vigilantism.