Press Release
August 9, 2016

Drilon urges Duterte admin to reform justice system

Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin M. Drilon today urged the Duterte administration to come up with a comprehensive reform package and long-term solutions to solve criminality and bring back the people's trust in the justice system.

"The challenge to all of us is to come up with a complete and significant reforms in our justice system, so that the government does not have to resort to a 'shame campaign' strategy in an effort to solve criminality," Drilon said.

Drilon stressed the need for the Duterte administration to look for a long-term solution to crimes, saying that "shame campaigning" would not put criminals behind bars.

"What we need is an effective justice system that will make punishment a deterrent against crimes. We must work all together - the three branches of government - for a justice system that is capable to punish criminals on time," Drilon stressed.

"The effective deterrent against the commission of crimes is the certainty of punishment and expeditiousness of the proceedings," he emphasized.

Drilon also said he was appalled by the lack of public indignation over the spate of killings of alleged drug suspects.

But he said he could understand that such was "a manifestation of public's frustration brought about by inefficiency in the country's justice system."

"There is a failure of the justice system. Our people are upset because of the inability of our justice system to address criminality and punish the criminals with dispatch," Drilon said.

"But because in our present justice system where punishment may come decades after the crime was committed, there was no effective deterrent against crimes, which is why criminality in the country is always high," Drilon lamented.

Earlier, Drilon said that a shame campaign as an effort to solve drug problems in the country is not based on evidence and has significant margin of error.

"The problem is that the shame campaign is not evidence-based. It is based on intelligence reports, which may or may not be true. In fact the President admitted that he might be wrong or right. But a single mistake could lead to a error, say death, which could no longer rectify," Drilon said.

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