Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances

The Philippines is struggling with extrajudicial killings and politically motivated violence. To highlight the issue and solicit ideas on how to address the problem, ABA ROLI—in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, the  University of the Philippines Foundation for Integrative Development Studies, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Alternative Law Group and Centerlaw—hosted  regional extrajudicial killings summits in Zamboanga, General Santos and Naga cities. Participants included prosecutors, academics, public attorneys, vetted army and police officials, representatives of civil rights organizations and journalist groups, and members of the Commission on Human Rights. The forum helped coordinate efforts and enhance stakeholders’ capacity to investigate and prosecute extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture. A total of 1,000 forensics manuals were distributed to legal professionals, and renowned international experts led discussions focused on increasing the use of physical evidence in the prosecution of human rights cases. At the beginning of the program, ABA ROLI and an international expert on forensics with extensive experience in developing nations conducted a three-day training for senior prosecutors. The training addressed crime scene investigation, using both classroom study and field investigations that simulate murder scenes and shallow gravesites for practical application.

 

The Sandiganbayan Justices having completed their CMIS Training.

Sandiganbayan

The ABA in cooperation with the USAID-funded ROLE project and The Asia Foundation project has supported the computerization of the Sandiganbayan (i.e. anti-corruption court).  The Sandiganbayan now has ten cases slated for continuous trial and at least three of the five divisions are working successfully with the computerized court Case Management Information System (CMIS). The Sandiganbayan has decreased its caseload from 2277 to 2098 (June 2006 statistics), representing an 8% decrease for the year to date.

 

Anti-Money Laundering Training

In conjunction with the Asian Development Bank, the Asia Foundation, the Rule of Law Effectiveness Program, and the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Prosecutorial Development Assistance, the ABA has co-sponsored several anti-money laundering trainings on subjects such as best practices on court rules and procedures for money-laundering/civil forfeiture actions. A Civil Forfeiture Seminar to familiarize prosecutors and judges on the recently passed New Rules on Civil Forfeiture (in relation to the Anti- Judge Susan Mollway of the United States District Court in Hawaii to share international inputs with the participants. 

In April 2007, the Rule of Law Initiative sponsored a roundtable for the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and other Filipino government agencies on regulatory and compliance issues.  Anti-money laundering expertise from the U.S. perspective was represented by Mr. Greg Baldwin, partner at Holland & Knight LLP.

 

Anti-Terrorism

The ABA sponsored a stakeholder’s roundtable in Mindanao to discuss anti-terrorism legislation and the balancing of the state's security interests with individual liberties. Libertas, a young lawyers' group, facilitated the program and the ABA acted as an "honest broker," encouraging stakeholder participation. A second forum on the same topic was held in Manila in October 2005.  An Anti-Terrorism bill was adopted by the legislature in February 2007.

Small claims courts

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Supreme Court of the Philippines, launched the first small claims courts on October 1, 2008. The pilot project was implemented in select first-level trial courts countrywide to expedite the litigation process and to provide better access to the judicial system. As of June 2009, these courts produced 3,547 dispositions out of the 5,713 small claims cases filed during the 2009 fiscal year—a 62 percent disposal rate for the previous nine months. While civil cases normally take years to resolve in Philippine courts, the average time from filing to disposition in the small claims courts is only four months. Small claims courts are projected to dramatically reduce backlogged cases of courts struggling with high caseloads. By January 2010, the Supreme Court anticipates all first level courts in the country—more than 1,200 courts—to maintain a small claims docket. ABA ROLI will provide assistance to the Supreme Court in training all judges and court personnel on how to adjudicate and process small claims cases.

Training judges and public attorneys

The Philippine criminal justice system has lost public confidence as hundreds of Filipinos have been subjected to extended injustices in jail cells while awaiting trial. To increase compliance with the Speedy Trial for all Criminal Cases Act of 1998, ABA ROLI and USAID, in collaboration with the Philippine Supreme Court and the Philippine Judicial Academy, developed a practical skills training plan and a handbook on speedy trial laws and techniques. The Public Attorney’s Office received technical assistance from ABA ROLI in 2008 and, as a result, its attorneys have filed a significant number of motions for relief based on the failure to prosecute in a timely manner. In the coming months, judges will be further trained on addressing speedy trial motions and on compliance to the time limitations contained in the law.

Judicial investigation and protection

The process for investigating ethical complaints against judges in the Philippines is challenging. Formal procedures on receiving complaints are lacking and abuse from lawyers who use filing such complaints as a litigation tactic further complicates the process. While complaints are received through multiple offices, staff attorneys with the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA)—who have never received formal training and who lack resources—conduct the majority of the investigations. To address these problems, ABA ROLI, USAID and OCA conducted a training-needs assessment of OCA staff attorneys and hosted a roundtable discussion with the executive director and general counsel of the California Commission on Judicial Performance. The roundtable emphasized the importance of developing internal guidelines for conducting investigations. Currently, ABA ROLI is developing a three-day training program to enhance the attorneys’ investigation skills, which will cover surveillance, evidence collection and witness interrogation. The initiative will include producing internal investigation guidelines to streamline the procedures and help make investigations consistent, transparent and independent.

Purging stale cases in the regional trial courts

ABA ROLI and USAID, in coordination with the OCA, conducted the Philippine judiciary’s first mid-career judicial audit in General Santos City. Currently, caseload judicial audits are conducted at the end of a judge’s career as a basic inventory of their open cases. Mid-career audits are intended to address the judiciary’s crippling case backlog by identifying judges with abnormally high caseloads and providing technical assistance to help determine the cause. OCA’s auditing attorneys worked with the regional judges and clerks to show how existing court rules can be used to identify and remove backlogged cases. The audit in General Santos City uncovered hundreds of cases that could readily be archived or dismissed and provided valuable insights on the principal causes of delay. In the coming months, audit teams of judicial supervisors will be sent to additional regional courts to conduct similar assessments.

Strengthening the integrity of the judiciary

In 2008, the Supreme Court completed its integrity development review to identify administrative and adjudicative functions of the Supreme Court that inadvertently create opportunities for corruption. The goal of the review is to develop control measures to minimize instances of financial misconduct by court personnel. With support from ABA ROLI and USAID, the review was cascaded to regional and municipal trial court levels. Workshops were conducted to familiarize presiding judges and clerks at local courts, and to solicit their input on how to improve the review. A total of 212 lower court personnel participated in these workshops and shared their thoughts for the development of a nationwide integrity action plan.

Assisting the Supreme Court with preparing for the 2010 elections

In May 2010, the Philippines will be having local and national elections. In the past, hundreds of cases were filed in court contesting the outcomes of the elections. Next year, the elections will be fully automated. This poses a new set of challenges for the courts, which are responsible for adjudicating all local election disputes. ABA ROLI will be working closely with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and Libertas, a Philippine election law non-governmental organization, to assist the Supreme Court with training judges on the new elections rules, the unique problems associated with computerized elections and proper allocation of resources to “election hot-spots” in the Philippines.

Providing support to journalists reporting on corruption

ABA ROLI has partnered with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) to provide mentoring and training to journalists throughout the country who want to report on local corruption issues. A series of trainings will be given on the legal meaning of various corruption terms, such as money laundering and embezzlement. Trainings will also address tracking public expenditures and determining compliance of local officials to procurement laws. IWPR will help the journalists set up a website to disseminate the information to the public.

 

Continuing Legal Education

ABA CD with some of our partners during the MCLE Workshop, Atty. Hector Martinez, then Pres. Phil. Bar Association (PBA) and Atty Fina Tantuico of PBA.

In order to improve regulation, oversight, and compliance of the Supreme Court's Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) program, the ABA assisted the MCLE Office in a survey to assess the effectiveness of the MCLE training program and to identify areas for improvement. In August 2006, The Rule of Law Initiative provided both a train-the-trainer’s program and an alternative technologies training for CLE providers. The ABA also partnered with the Philippine Bar Association to deliver an interactive 36-hour training program, in August and September of 2006, that fulfilled the mandatory CLE requirements for lawyers. The CLE program and the train-the-trainers program where replicated during second quarter of the year 2007. 

 

Justice Antonio Carpio answering a query during open forum – Judge to Judge Dialogue in Mindanao.

Judicial Education

To facilitate the sharing of common concerns and the exchange of ideas on how to meet professional challenges, the ABA is sponsoring a series of "judge-to-judge" dialogues in the Philippines. Under this project, judges from the U.S. and other countries meet with judges from the Philippine Supreme, appellate, and trial courts to discuss a variety of issues. Local judge-to-judge dialogues have also been held to allow judges to meet with their colleagues and discuss issues of common concern. The Rule of Law Initiative held a series of local judge-to-judge dialogues on preventing case delays in Manila, Laoag, Boracay, and Zamboanga City.     

 

 

Development of Teaching Module in Legal Ethics

Symbolic turnover to Dean Magsalin, Pres. Phil. Association of Law Schools, copy of the module by the authors.

The ABA partnered with the University of the Philippines Law School to develop a module for a specialized ethics course. The process involved initial training on the use of interactive teaching techniques, the development and pilot testing of the ethics course during the second semester of 2005-2006 school year, and finally the compilation of the course reading materials. The interactive nature of this course, which allows students to be actively involved during classroom discussion, is unique in the Philippines. The compiled course materials were reduced and compiled into a “module” that could be used by other Filipino law professors in teaching ethics. The module contains materials for teaching ethics in five substantive areas, Family Law, Labor Law, Remedial Law, Corporation and Securities Law, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. The ABA hopes that the module will become the standard in teaching legal ethics and bring about a new era in teaching methodologies in Filipino law schools. The module was launched in February 2007 in partnership with the Philippine Association of Law Schools (PALS) and the University of the Philippines Law School.  Deans, law professors, and MCLE providers from around the country attended the event. Some of the UP Professors–authors shared with their colleagues their experience in developing the module, teaching the course and the use of interactive teaching methodologies.  Copies of the module were distributed widely, and in particular, all member schools of PALS were given copies of the module.

 

Development of Curricula for Anti-Corruption

In partnership with the law faculty at the Ateneo de Manila University, the Rule of Law Initiative is working to develop a curriculum for an anti-corruption course that will result in a module to be utilized by other law schools. Despite several recent measures to combat corruption in the Philippines, evidence indicates that it continues to rise. The course seeks to address why the existing legal and policy frameworks fail to address issues of corruption through a multi-disciplinary approach.

 

Philippine Women Judges Association (PWJA)

The ABA assisted the PWJA in convening its Seminar and Annual Meeting through sponsorship of the event. The Honorable Jiin-Fang Lin, Chief Judge of the Taiwan District Court in Taipei and Joan Winship, Executive Director of International Association of Women Judges spoke on capacity building of the women in the judiciary. Ms. Winship additionally led a capacity-building Workshop for PWJA officers and board members.  The ABA likewise conducted a Strategic Planning Workshop with the PWJA. As a result of this workshop, the Rule of Law Initiative will support the PWJA in developing and publishing a “know your rights” brochure on gender issues, particularly with the newly enacted juvenile justice law, domestic violence law, and anti-trafficking law; to be distributed throughout the country to inform the public and local community leaders of their rights under these laws. The ABA will also support a series of roundtable discussion in collaboration with the local PWJA and IBP chapters and some NGOs, to inform community leaders and citizens of their rights and to engage leaders to pursue community-coordinated activities to protect women and children in their respective province and region.

 

Bar Association Activities

The ABA supported the first bar leadership roundtable in cooperation with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the Philippines Bar Association.  Ms. Teresa Cannady served as moderator while Ms. Dianna Kempe, former President of the IBA and current Co-chair of the ABA Task Force on the Rule of Law, presented her recommendations on how bar associations can be leaders in the rule of law.

The main objective of this activity was to bring these two associations together to evaluate and assess their activities as community leaders and as advocates for the rule of law. The theme was “going beyond” how bar associations traditionally serve their members as a trade association, to being protectors of the public and promoters of the rule of law. The three main points included the importance of bar leadership, lawyers rendering service to the profession and to the public, and going beyond ethics rules to show respect for colleagues and the courts. Translating these concepts into reality can mean providing free legal aid, supporting public legal education, and taking a public stand as advocates for the rule of law.

The roundtable also provided an opportunity for the two associations to discuss their programs and seek avenues of cooperation. The national officers of both associations, attended the half-day discussion session. The Rule of Law Initiative will follow up with both bar associations to plan similar events in the region and support activities designed to bring legal information to the public.