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by Prince Golez, Manila Reporter
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MANILA – Sen. Francis Pangilinan has a solution to the extrajudicial killings taking place in the country: speed up the wheels of justice.
Pangilinan has proposed to convene the Joint Judiciary, Executive, and Legislative Advisory and Consultative Council to improve the coordination of the government’s three branches to uphold the rule of law, especially on the issue of vigilante killings.
“Convene the (Council), modernize our system of justice to punish the guilty swiftly and extrajudicial killings and disregard for the rule of law will be a thing of the past,” the lawmaker said, reiterating his proposal to increase the country’s conviction rates to stave off crime.
Dismayed over the low conviction rate of the Ombudsman in the Sandiganbayan for corruption cases, Pangilinan lamented that less than 20 percent of offenders are convicted.
Conviction rates should be raised from 50 percent to 70 percent to instill fear of the consequences of committing corrupt acts.
“When more are punished and punished swiftly, respect for the rule of law will return,” according to him.
Pangilinan also called to raise the judiciary’s budget to 2 percent of the national budget to improve the dispensation of justice; create and establish more courts and justice halls; expedite the filling up of vacancies in courts; and raise the salary and benefits of judges, prosecutors, and court personnel.
The judiciary, Pangilinan shared, only gets a sum of less than one percent of the national budget.
“With the increase in budgetary support for the judiciary, our courts through the leadership of the Supreme Court must endeavor to reduce the average life span of a case that remains pending before our courts,” he said./PN
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