Want to pin down corrupt execs? Drilon says cases must be resolved faster

Senate President Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Franklin Drilon criticized the country’s courts for their slow resolution of cases particularly those involving erring public officials.

“Cases in our courts take too long to resolve,” Drilon said.

“We must address this, especially as it concerns the Sandiganbayan,” he said, noting that filing cases against erring public officials was hardly a deterrent because the anti-graft court is burdened with thousands of cases that would take an average of five years to resolve.

Drilon is proposing a “paradigm” shift among the country’s lawyers to help address issues confronting the legal profession and advised aspiring lawyers to refrain from misusing legal procedures to advance their own interest.

“Lawyers are often called creatures of conflict.  We thrive when there is a dispute.  Our system of litigation is one that is adversarial by design. This system remains to be the bedrock of a democratic framework, where a third party arbiter can resolve disputes between two combatants objectively,” Drilon said in his speech when he received the degree of Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) from the University of the Philippines (UP) during the 2014 commencement exercises of the UP College of Law Wednesday.

In reality, he said, the results, and even the process of litigation are “imperfect.”

Drilon also urged lawyers to be “problem solvers rather than gladiators.”

“They should be more result-oriented, than procedure-based,” he said.

“Judges and lawyers should be more interested in attaining just results, rather than an overly strict compliance with rules. Legal disputes should be settled, not on the basis of who is more capable of using legal procedures to his advantage, but rather on the basis of who has a clear right in law.”

Drilon then reiterated the need for the recalibration of training of new lawyers.

“It is about time that we consider changing the way that our lawyers are trained. There may be merit to the proposition that law graduates should be required, or at the very least encouraged, to train in government positions that require the exercise of skills pertaining to alternative dispute resolution, such as conciliation and mediation,” he said.

“When lawyers face each other as gladiators, the result is always a winner-take-all situation. However, as officers of the court, the duty of lawyers is not merely to arrive at a determination of who wins and who loses. Rather, the duty of lawyers is to see to it that justice is done,” he added.

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