Save our judges

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Save our judges
Sunday, 01 13, 2006

The pillars of our justice system have become fair game for elimination: lawyers, prosecutors, law enforcers, media practitioners and jail guards increasingly figure in statistics of violence. And the magistrates are not spared. The latest victim, Regional Trial Court Judge Henrick Gingoyon of Pasay City, was felled by an assassin’s bullet on the eve of the New Year. Gingoyon was the ninth officer of justice to be gunned down in a two-year span. As if to drive home the point that the lawlessness of the year just past will not abate this year, Gingoyon’s cowardly and bestial assassination could not have been executed at a better time.

Echoing the outrage of the 1,500 trial judges throughout the country, Judge Romeo Barza, president of the Philippine Judges’ Association (PJA), declared: “The PJA can only condemn in the strongest terms the recent murder of Judge Gingoyon, even as it calls on the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation to immediately and tirelessly pursue and seize the merciless killers and their mastermind and bring them all to the bar of justice.”

During the wake for Gingoyon, Barza could not help but express his chagrin over the exceedingly obvious lack of provision for the security of judges, as well as the increasing realization by judges that they could walk right into the path of a craven madman whose idea of a fair legal system is to shoot the ultimate dispensers of justice themselves. Indeed, how does one protect an upright judge like Gingoyon from predators or vengeful litigants?

It is no wonder that Barza is encouraging his brethren in the Judiciary to take up arms — in the literal sense of the word, the way he has secured himself from Day One of his stint as a judge in a hot spot somewhere in Batangas. This call to arms, it would seem, has found favorable response, as evidenced by the number of magistrates who are now increasingly drawn to the training being offered by the Sigma Rho Shooters Club under its president, lawyer Raul Reyes. That is well and good: hold a firearm responsibly, and know how and when to use it. In life-threatening situations — which is almost always frequent in the life of a judge — this rather unorthodox approach to self-preservation seems justifiable (no pun intended) when one considers the death toll among officers of the court.

The Marshal Plan of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio — the putting up of an elite corps of security men and law enforcers trained to respond to emergency situations, provide security and investigate threats to life of our judges — is an almost overdue solution, but there should be no falling back on this initiative. After all, the lives of our judges should be secure, their equanimity undisturbed, so they can dispense justice without the least emotional dissonance. Our judges should be assured that they can go on with their work, act fairly and justly, with no niggling fears in their subconscious that they would be done in if they decide one way or the other.

The security detail is another. Many of our legislators in the Congress are entitled to three or more bodyguards, yet their exposure to threats to their lives is niggardly compared to the ever-present danger to a judge’s life 24 hours of the day. Gingoyon had just come from the gym when he was gunned down. His assassin had chosen a time when Gingoyon least expected it. A bodyguard could have deterred that threat to his life.

Vacancies in the trial courts stand at 30 percent of the total 2,100 seats. No takers because of the low pay, and now because of the risk to life. Being a judge is hazardous, and judges are not even entitled to hazard pay. Barza says the Judiciary Development Fund could perhaps be tapped for this additional emolument for our judges, on top of their allowances under Republic Act 9227. It would do well for Congress to also consider Senate Bill 2120 of Sen. Edgardo Angara, doubling the monthly salaries of our trial judges. Put in the provisions for their security, and we might just have some upsurge in interest for those who want to join the Judiciary.

The killing of Judge Gingoyon is a wake-up call for everyone. They who work hard to dispense justice must not themselves be denied the justice they rightfully deserve. Lawyer Teodoro Mata, in his statement now going the rounds of the Internet, has perhaps ruefully expressed the sum of all their fears: “It is alarming how easy it is to kill a person these days, including a judge. I have witnessed the grief of a judge’s family, and the pain and hell his children have to go through after losing their father in line of duty. I know all too well the frustrating process of prosecuting a murderer, and the danger to life that comes with it. I am outraged at the recent killing. I hope that justice will be swift on those responsible.”

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