Justicebiz

by Roger B Rueda

The cohesiveness and camaraderie of lawyers and fraternities are adversaries of justice and subtle advocates of injustice. Bribery then is likely and inexorable as justice is big business in this country. No poor people can go in for justice because the process to realise it is full of prejudice and inequality, as everyone can be bought off. Duplicity and corruption are everywhere despite the Daang Matuwid, a pompous, ostentatious, and hollow watchword of the present administration. It promises disappointment, exasperation, and weariness. It offends the intelligence of the poor Filipinos. It eggs on the unfairness, favouritism, predisposition, and preconception of our society. It reflects the pointlessness, futility, ineffectiveness, and incompetence of the government. It disregards the poor intellectuals and pushes them to rise up and kick up a rumpus, to stand up for their right.

Justice in the Philippines is politically driven: anyone who supports a politician is fail-safe to realise justice, which can be brought about by palm-greasing.  Thus, this country is a country of unethicality and dishonesty. Its mediocrity, superficiality, and triviality are reflected by the services the government puts forward and the untruthfulness it can do despite depravity and paltriness all in the name of money and politics. With this, it is alarmingly discriminating to millions of Filipinos who do not play a part in prompting the government to be reliable and scrupulous, to rationalise its system, and to tick off the erring government officials like arbiters and judges. If the government does not follow through what is even-handed and appropriate, honest and humanitarian, and rational and judicious, it does not deserve to be deferred to or respected. All it deserves is to be disparaged for it misuses the rationality of this country. It promotes disparity and confusion amongst its people. It signals to the poor people to be apathetic about this country and its identity and national dignity and honour. And it inspires people to be high level criminals – corrupt officials whose charge is difficult to prove unless one is the enemy of the present government.

Depriving people of justice they deserve is more disconcerting than burglary, mugging, stealing, shoplifting, and pilfering. People who are bribed to supress justice are scoundrels and crooks more than pork barrel scammers. They are like an apple which looks so luscious yet its pulp has been ravaged by worms. They should be poked around by the ombudsman. In the Philippines, however, corruption and bribery are OK – a signal to the youth that everyone should strive to be high level criminals, as these kinds of crimes are subtly threatening and dishonouring. That being a criminal is OK so long as you are an arbiter or judge or a head of a local government agency.

I hope the social media will serve as a looking glass for the government to mull over itself and gauge its efficiency and inadequacy and laxity and incompetence.  

To the arbiter I hate most, don't be so bloody like the smell of the fish and your rotten soul! Do your job honestly!

Labour Injustice in Iloilo City

an essay by Roger B Rueda

Persuading someone to favour someone is bribery that both the lawyer and an arbiter should fight shy of especially when the case lacks subtlety and brims with clarity. All the lawyers I’ve consulted have been knocked for six as the decision of the corrupt and dishonest arbiter derides the intelligence of the sacked workers and the truthfulness of the law. My suspicion has been aroused with such a stupid decision, which can only be gotten done when bought off. It is so preposterous.

Such an arbiter should be kept an eye on and all his decisions before should be looked over – perhaps, by the CHR or ombudsman, as with this kind of arbiter, many human rights have been disregarded and defiled. I’m afraid that the ill-treated and misused were insulted and unfairly treated twice – in the workplace and a government agency labelled as or at least expected to be in ‘Daang Matuwid.’ This decision calls for organising a group that keeps this government agency under observation and asks for its abolition when it is so unscrupulous and depraved. This corrupt practice should be known by all Filipinos, whether they will react or not, act or not, express sympathy or not – to understand how justice is being carried out in the Philippines or in some places like Iloilo City, to inform everyone that the gremlins of bribery and corruption are full of zip and unscathed.

The only way to judge the Daang Matuwid is through one’s direct experience with the government, when one knows he/she is abused in the workplace, yet there is no government agency which can help him/her because of the arbiter who has the tendency to be deceitful.

If such an injustice happens in the local government agency, it means that the Daang Matuwid has no power in the local government or the local leaders betray the Daang Matuwid as they pretend to be upright, trustworthy, moral, good, decent, law-abiding, reliable, scrupulous, or honourable, yet it slurs over the intention of the Daang Matuwid. They treat the Daang Matuwid with scorn, as they pull it down to mockery and cynicism. They bear out how useless the Daang Matuwid is as it has no teeth. Then the President on TV brags about the Daang Matuwid. The Daang Matuwid is mentally overwhelming when the injustice it has not prevented has scored in the victims’ hearts and minds. (The Daang Matuwid should have its own eyes and ears in all government agencies.)

If one has the same case as the ten and the one has won and the ten has lost, does it mean that the one is not worth it (for buying off), but the class is because it involves a lot of money and bribery is worth it? Why is it that the decision is very short? And why does it only focus on one person, who quit then but returned after a few months and stayed for another year? How about the others who worked for the school for eight years? Why theirs aren’t discussed and as if circumvented or considered unreal?

I hope the administration of President Benigno Aquino pokes around this government agency in Iloilo City, for the sake of carrying out the Daang Matuwid. I hope the CHR will be as vigilant as it is, though it is not on TV or publicised. If injustice has taken place it means it has been happening since then. If injustice is not stopped, it signals everyone to revere money more than everything as justice means money, which purports justice.

Frankly, now I’m afraid that this country is getting so prejudiced against the poor, with lop-sided arbiters and government officials.

If the Daang Matuwid promises to alleviate the cancer of this society, then be it, and never should it act like it has no therapeutic claim – or else what is it out of the ordinary compared to the previous administration?