JESUS ROS LAPUZ, JR.

REMEDIAL LAW REVIEW

ATTY. KIT VILLASIS

Due process is one of the fundamental rights afforded to everyone as guranteed and enshrined
in the constitution. It simply contemplates that a person may not be punished or his rights curtailed
without the opportunity to be heard and present his case to defend himself. One of the most important
aspect of due process, specially in criminal cases and subject to certain exceptions, is a public and open
trial. In this stage of judicial proceedings, the parties in a case are given the opportuity to present their
respective arguments and substantiate their claims before the judge with the help of their counsels.

As a requirement for our Remedial Law Review class under Atty. Kit Villasis, we were asked to do
a court visit and make a reaction paper based on our observations about the whole judicial proceeding.
For my part, i visited the sala of Honorable Judge Gonzales of Regional Trial Court Branch 80 and sat in a
case involving theft of a househelper. At the outset, I immediately noticed the upright dimeanor of the
judge. I have always considered that for a person to become a competent judge, he must not only be an
expert of the law but one must also be honrobale, honest, and most importantly, impartial. During the
trial that i visited the judge was very stern and sincerely curouse about what really transpired in the case
withour any hint of favoring any party or making comments that would tend to imply partiality on his
part. She only addressed the parties in a curious voice when anything needs to be claridied and he
exuded an aura of nobility in him. I have been on other salas of judges as well but some of them looked,
for me personnaly at least, as someone who is drunk from their power and authority that most of the
time, they address parties and people inside the court as if they are less of a human being than them. I
really believe that to be able to command respect without sacrificng ones authority is a trait all judges
of courts of justice ought to have. To be intimidating is one thing to be able to hold power and authority
to decide disutes and make huge impacts on the lives of people, but to be able to command respect and
admiration from all the people inside the room is a different thing altogether.

As for the courtroom itself, it was not the typical modern and tidy courtroom that you would
normally witness in movies and scenes from the television series Suits. The courtroom looked old and
outdated and far from what you would normally imagine. A typical courtroom is indeed like a sala which
literally means living room in Spanish and in Filipino. The sala that i visited was packed and i believe
there were also several law students like me who were there also in compliance to a school requirement.
I was honestly anticipating a courtroom drama typically what you would see in movies and well-dressed
lawyers trying to outsmart each other through their tricky cross examination of witnesses. However, the
one i have witnessed is not one of those.

The case just invloved an arraignment of one Ms. Guerrero who was accused of theft by her
employers as she was employed as a house helper who allegedly connived with dugo-dugo gang. Under
this scheme, people will contact the house of the victim while informing the one who would answer the
phone who is typically the househelper that her employer figured in an accident and would then
proceed to give instruction to locate certain valuables in the room for the payment of the hospital bills.
This modus operandi has been going around for a while now and yet people still fall victim for it given
the amount of information that these perpatrators are able to acquire about their potential victims to
make their stories more believable. Usually in this type of crime, the househelper is likewise a victim,
however in this case, Ms. Guerrero was likewise considered an accused given the amount of valuables
that the employers lost and also her familiarity of where such valuables were placed depiste the fact that
she has not been able to gain access, or at least never been given the permission, to know where a
certain volt is hidden in the master’s bedroom. It was also alleged that Ms. Guerrero’s acts prior to the
commission of the crime were already suspicious and there were also evidence by the prosecution
linking here to one of the perpetrators who allegedly called the house regarding a certain emergency.

During the arraignment of Ms. Guerrero, the complaint was read to her and was even translated
to her in both tagalog mixed with bisaya just to make sure that she fully understands the offense charged
against her and the circumstances attendant to it for her to be able to afford full protection of her rights
to due process. She then pleaded not guilty and proceeded to say some other things which i was not
able to understand anymore given that she was kind of emotional already which is understandable.
Personally, i really could not tell whether Ms. Guerrero was guilty or not, her reactions and demeanor
throughout the proceedings were telling that she was also a victim, but then again, i am confident that
during the full blown trial, both sides wil be given the opportunity to present their evidence to
substantiate their respective claims and that the prosecution would have to convince the sala of Judge
Gonzales the guil of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.

All in all, although i cannot say that i really was surprised about anything that i have seen and
witnessed that day except maybe for how the courtroom looked but with respect to the court
proceeding itself, it was very much what i i had envisioned it to be. Nevertheless, this activity is a great
experience for me as i am given the opportunity to get a glimpse of what a typical day would look like for
me as a lawyer.