BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
MUCH has changed in the Philippine judiciary in the past 20 years. Prosecutors and judges in the family courts are armed with 37 laws that mandate that they protect children and bring their abusers to swift and strict justice. Many prosecutors and judges are doing just that in Luzon. It is a big change in a changing era for the judiciary.
Finally, the judiciary is acting more swiftly and more determined to bring healing through justice for the child victims. They have cried in silence and suffered all their lives with the stigma and pain of having been raped and abused without help or justice.
In Zambales, a judge is holding continuous hearings all day, taking testimony of the child in the morning and cross examination in the afternoon. The child victim is not stressed by the long wait of weeks, even months, before cross-examination. In other courts, the defense is sometimes allowed a postponement, imposing more stress on the child.
Most prosecutors and judges are advanced in efficient hearing of cases of abused children and schedule continuous hearings. Other tardy prosecutors and judges are still to catch up with the demand by the public and the Court Administrator for speedy and strict implementation of the law.
People in the media and the public can take heart that the tide is turning and no nonsense court trials are making the delivery of justice to victims of child sexual abuse more efficiently and more frequent. We just need more of them.
The smartest and most effective prosecutors have a resolution done in weeks and efficient, no-nonsense judges can finish a case in just a few months. In the past, the average case was completed in two or three years. The best judges do not allow or consider a recantation of testimony by a child who is obviously being intimidated by the family of the accused and pressured by the defense lawyer.
In such a case, the child is forced to testify against herself. We must bring these resolved cases to the attention of the secretary of the Department of justice and the Court Administrator so the best practitioners of justice will be promoted to be able to do more justice.
The best judges deserving commendation are those that have continuous hearings, not staggered over months because the child victim loses heart. If she is in the community, she can be intimidated by the families of the alleged abuser, cannot attend the hearing and testify and justice fails. More recently, the prosecutors are petitioning the judge to refer such a child to the protection of the Preda home for children.
That is what is happening in Cebu, according to five judges who want to succeed and hear the truth from the child-victims but cannot. They are asking the Preda Foundation to set up a home in Cebu to protect, heal, and empower children so they can attend court hearings and have the courage to testify against their abusers. (To be continued)/PN
