Philippines

Rizal’s Time
By: James Estropia
Michael Daniele Santos
NO EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW
• Filipinos were abused, brutalized, persecuted and slandered

• Spanish missionaries in 16th Century taught that all men,

irrespective of color and race are children of God and as
such they are brothers, equal before God. To the imperialist
way of thinking, brown Filipinos and white Spaniards may be
equal to God, but not before the law and certainly not in
practice. Spanish colonial authorities arrogantly treated the
brown-skinned Filipinos as inferior beings, not their Christian
brothers to be protected but rather as their majesty’s
subjects to be exploited.

• Leyes de Indias ( Law of Indies) rarely enforced were Spanish

Civil Code imposed light penalties on Spaniards but heavier
penalties to Indios
Present Issue
• Farmers who fell a few trees get the full brunt of
the law but public officials who do worse such as
congressmen who devastate whole forests,
contaminate water supplies, put up structures in
environmental preserves are handled with kid
gloves.  Prosecutors shy away from charging them
and if they do, do so carelessly, enough to be
unsuccessful.
• If by some chance due to the outrageousness of
their crime, influentials i.e. rich, public officials,
relatives of powers-that-be are imprisoned, they
are allowed to build their own castles of comfort
within prison walls (or even outside) while serving
their so-called sentences while the ordinary felons
are in the helllholes of our prison system.
MAL ADMINISTRATION OF
JUSTICE
• Corruption characterized the courts in the
Philippines during the time of Rizal. In fact, from
the view point of the Filipino victims, these courts
were rather rightly called “COURTS OF INJUSTICE.”
Justice was costly, PARTIAL and SLOW. Poor
Filipinos has no access to the courts.
• The poor almost had no access to the court but
the rich had. Wealth, prestige and color of skin
were the predominant factors of winning a case in
the court. The saying, “Justice delayed is justice
denied” was true. Among the victims were Rizal
and his family and the GomBurza.
Present Issue
• Slow justice as drug war rages in Philippines

• Some Innocent people accused murder has languished in a

Philippines jail for a years without a verdict. People have
been arrested as part of the drug war since Duterte came to
power, Defendants often have to wait months between
hearing, only for the session to be delayed because a judge
is sick, a prosecutor fails to show up or a lawyer has another
engagement. Sometimes the case gets reassigned to a new
judge and the whole process starts from scratch. In other
cases, public attorneys assigned to defend poor suspects
change jobs without handing over crucial documents to their
replacement or worse, files get lost. And again the defendant
is back at square one.
• Thank You