JURY SYSTEM -- RIPE FOR THE PEOPLE'S PICKING

I wrote letters to various groups and then all of them were sent back to me -- undeliverable. So I am now rewriting them:

I think the discussions on the relevance or irrelevance of the jury system is in itself irrelevant. The jury system has not been tried yet in our country, but there is something that approximates it very well in our midst -- the bodong of the Igorot peoples where the council of elders decide on political and other issues that affect their communites. The decision of the elders constitute the law of the communities. 

Mainly the bodong is now used to maintain peace in the areas. Macliing was one of those elders who held the bodong for the people to decide whether to accept or reject the Chico river hydroelectric project which had sought to bring electricity to the provinces of Ilocos (Marcos origins) and Cagayan Valley (Enrile roots) during the time of Martial Law. Macliing had challenged the powers that be and later on was gunned down by the military, as the bodong had been an effective way, not only to be used as a native form of justice system, but also a vehicle for international attention on pressing issues of the day. 

The real score is not whether it had been unsuccessful or cruelly used in other countries but rather -- are our people ready to render judicial decisions in a democratic way?

Given the many historical events that have passed our way, I think that our people, the ordinary ones have an innate sense of justice. They know what is right and wrong -- given our Christian background showing how Christ was cruelly nailed to the cross by the Jews; they know who is a villain and who is a hero -- given our deep sense of history as well as immersion in heroic films of FPJ (don't minimize the effects of cultural products in raising the consciousness of the people); as well as our experiencing liberating events in our country -- the freedom from Spanish colonization brought about by the Katipunan heroes and heroines as well as Rizal; the freedom from the American colonizers -- the various rebellions against their rule; the refusal to kowtow to the Japanese imperialists who conquered our country. In other words, Folks, our people have a high sense of justice that collectively can render wise and chaste decisions in a jury system. 

Let us not underestimate our people.  Allow me to include the People Power we had against the dictatorship of Marcos and so all the above mentioned events and the latter make our people ripe for being justices on injustice. 

By the way, our people are so keen on achieving justice which is reflected in the great number of cases that the Department of Justice receives. This shows that our people want, are hankering for justice, but our system is simply too slow, too corrupt, too easy to be manipulated which then points to a need for a different more democratic, more powerful system -- the jury system. 

I gave the following blueprint to Ms. Daisy on how to conduct the jury movement which include the following organizational structure:

1. promotional section -- to educate the public on what the jury system is all about using tri-media -- radio, print and tv. So far, DZXL through its afternoon program hosted by Justice Bakal and Chairman Mau ( these are their screen names so called) has been the most receptive. 

Daisy produced the English version of the primer on the jury system; and Dr. Annie Ortinero translated it into Pilipino. 

The other stations are still being tapped. 

2. linkages section -- connecting with NGOs and other organizations which can disseminate the information to their members; and the 

3. signature-gathering section -- this will be composed of people who will initiate gathering of signatures to support the jury system. 7 Million is the target. After this, the signatures will be submitted to the Comelec which will verity the truthfulness of the signatures and later on will call for a referendum. 

By the way, a bigoted radio host refused to have the jury system be discussed at all, showing his ignorance of democratic procedures. How sad. 

So should anyone ask you Folks to please sign, kindly do it with a smile despite the pain of minimising the corruptible powers of certain judicial personalities.