Justice delayed is justice denied - but don't give up on it 
The Universe
(April 24, 2005)
Georges Brion is a good catholic and a delegate from Belgium to the inter-parliamentary union general assembly held at the Philippine Convention center at the heart of Manila in the first week April. The hundreds of parliamentarians from around the world called on legislators everywhere to curb all violations of human rights with justly administered laws. They were just in time.
What happened to assembly delegate Georges Brion who is the assistant secretary general of the parliament of Belgium brought everybody back to the reality outside the air-conditioned halls of the convention center.
Being a simple down-to-earth man he took a motorised tricycle to Mass early Tuesday morning without police escort or the like. God he rightly believed, is not impressed with political pomp and ceremony. But that was his undoing, the tricycle driver took him to as isolated alleyway, beat him, robbed him and left him. Good Filipinos, who abound, came to help him. Police made an arrest and Brion was able to identify him at once from a line up of 15 tricycle drivers the next day.
Just two days later, the driver was arraigned at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 118 before Judge Pedro Corales. He was found guilty after the positive identification made by Brion and the evidence of the police who had traced him. Just four days after the crime, the perpetrator was beginning a prison sentence of four years and twenty days. Swift justice indeed. But for victims of human rights violations and cases of sexually abused children there is no such speedy justice.
At Easter 1996, while holding a peaceful picket in Olongapo City against the erection of dangerous electric cables close to the children's home I was attacked, beaten up and brutally handcuffed from behind by four cowardly Olongapo Police officers. Then I was brought to police by the superintendent himself near the picket line and several witnesses, including a Columban priest, saw him kick and punch me.
My brave companion Lowell Maglaqui and I were thrown into separate police vans. My head was bouncing against the floor all the way to the jail. There I was interrogated for hours while cuffed and bleeding, denied water and medical assistance. Lowell and I filed charges against the police but the case was blocked for seven years until June 19, 2003.
Then, mysteriously, the court called us to new hearings. Hurrah, justice at last, we thought. This time, judge Maria Elisa Sempio Diy was presiding. The police superintendent, we learned, was going for promotion and early retirement but he must clear the case first. Hence the new hearings.
We still had the evidence and most of the witnesses who had clearly identified the accused. As one after another began to give powerful testimony the judge suddenly it was unnecessary to hear all the witnesses. Even those who had seen witnessed the brutal beatings were not allowed to be presented by the prosecution.
To our amazement there was no defence hearings, just a denial by the accused. Then came the bombshell, a verdict quicker than imagined: case dismissed - the police were all cleared in an instant.
What was alleged against the accused was not proven beyond reasonable doubt, the courts decision said. The evidence of eyewitnesses identifying the accused who beat me up before an audience was "insufficient" - case dismissed.
Now we are concentrating on having our eyes tested and learning to apply the legal skills of how to sew and stitch up our long-delayed cases against the child rapists. Judges Pedro Corales and Maria Elisa Sempio Diy should be promoted to the Family courts - that is where they are needed most. [End]
