An injustice
The foreigner was wanted for robbery in his own country, and was accused of issuing bouncing checks in Rizal, Laguna and Nueva Ecija, so perhaps he deserved being arrested and detained in a government facility. Still, 16 years is a long wait for guilt to be determined, especially when it’s spent with your freedom curtailed.
At age 31, Junichi Inoue of Japan was in the prime of his life when he was apprehended in 1999 by Bureau of Immigration agents for violating the conditions of his stay in the Philippines. Inoue applied for voluntary deportation, which was granted in May of the same year. But the complaints against him for issuing bouncing checks prevented the BI from deporting him, according to immigration officials. Last Wednesday Inoue, now 47, was finally deported to Japan.
Depending on the amount involved, the number of complainants and extent of swindling operations, the Anti-Bouncing Check Law or Batas Pambansa 22 can put an offender in prison for a few years to life. Inoue remained detained in a BI facility rather than a national prison, indicating he was never convicted. But he might as well have been, considering the 16 years he spent in detention, even if only in an immigration holding center in Taguig.
It may be cold comfort for Inoue to know that Filipinos and foreigners alike suffer from the snail’s pace of Philippine justice. The slow pace turns away investors, fuels insurgencies, breeds criminal impunity, and encourages short cuts in obtaining justice and enforcing the law. The justice system has become a national embarrassment. Many other countries deliver justice speedily and efficiently, with their citizens generally accepting the decisions of the courts and prosecutors. Why can’t the Philippines do the same?
Perhaps the Supreme Court, which oversees the judiciary, can delegate some of this authority to another body that can give full-time attention to judicial reforms. If justice delayed is justice denied, then there must be millions of victims of injustice in this country.