Brother against brother, sister-in-law against sister-in-law, cousin against cousin; poor but honest Marine refusing to accept a bribe that would get him out of poverty; same Marine standing up to a high government official who is trying to browbeat him; lawyer going the extra but crooked mile for his clients, facing disbarment; task force members ?resigning? (not from their jobs, just from the task force) because they are ?under a cloud.? No way can a TV soap opera beat these scenes for sheer drama and human interest.

But the viewing, reading and listening public might get so interested in all these individual scenes from the so-called Alabang Boys controversy that they forget to look at the big picture. And that big picture shows a criminal justice system that is in a state of rot, if not rotten to the core. And unless extreme measures are taken to stop or excise that rot, the rule of law in the Philippines, already in extremis, will cease to exist.

An exaggeration? Hardly. A criminal justice system has five elements, called ?pillars?: Enforcement, Prosecution, Courts, Correction, and Community. Each of the first four, which are associated with government, has been rocked with scandals?and we don?t have to have long memories, because they are of recent vintage.

Take the Correction pillar?the prison system, essentially. Remember the stories about how certain favored prisoners live almost like kings in the national penitentiary, being served hand and foot not just by other prisoners on their payroll, but by the prison authorities themselves, who may also be on their payroll. Or remember the numerous ?escapes? reported in the press? where the escapees generally are high-profile detainees, those with money and/or political power and influence. Some don?t escape?they are released prematurely, for want of a better word?and again, these happen to be high-profile cases.

Second, take the Courts pillar. It surely has been less than six months since the Court of Appeals (CA) scandal broke out, resulting in the dismissal of one justice, the suspension of another, and reprimands of three others. This, hardly a year after another scandal involving the ?Dirty Dozen? CA justices (no one punished) who were selling temporary restraining orders, among other things. At the same time, the Supreme Court has not been spared from scandal, with Supreme Court Justice Dante Tinga actually being accused of receiving a P10-million bribe (the charge was dismissed by the high court and the accuser was fined P30,000). The names of Justices Consuelo Ynares Santiago and Minita Chico Nazario were also bandied about (both cleared by their Supreme Court colleagues).

Third, take the Prosecution pillar. Less than six months ago, what has been labeled as the biggest drug bust (valued at P300 billion worth of equipment and products) in the country took place in La Union. The cases against five of the six suspects were dismissed for lack of evidence, by prosecutors from the Department of Justice, even as four members of the police were recommended to be charged. (Does this mean that the policemen were the drug manufacturers?) The actions or omissions of the prosecutors were met with disbelief in the La Union community, so much so that San Fernando Bishop Artemio Rillera reportedly asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that the case be transferred from the Department of Justice head office in Manila to prosecutors in La Union province. (He apparently had more faith in them.)

While the spotlight is now on the Department of Justice, one cannot help pointing to the Office of the Ombudsman, where, according to one writer, ?cases just lie there and just die there.? One particular case stands out: where the Supreme Court had ruled that the Commission on Elections had awarded a contract in clear violation of law and jurisprudence, but the Ombudsman found that no one in the Commission on Elections was to blame.

Last but definitely not the least, the Enforcement pillar, where the scandals and controversies involving its members are almost too numerous to mention?the most recent ones being the ?euro generals? and the shooting deaths of Alfonso de Vera and his seven-year-old daughter Lia Allana. But one cannot forget police involvement in the Kuratong Baleleng case, where about P100 million also disappeared, or in the murder of Bubby Dacer and his driver.

The Alabang Boys affair, however, has dragged down the criminal justice system to new depths. Because here we have two of its pillars at each other?s throats, one (Enforcement) accusing the other (Prosecution) of bribe-taking, and the other accusing the first of incompetence, at the very least. All in public. Since the two government agencies usually work very closely with each other, one can only presume that they know whereof they speak with respect to each other?s shortcomings.

Ironically, the Arroyo administration, from its inception, emphasized the need for a strong criminal justice system if the country is to have sustained development. Its current development plan devotes two chapters to the topic. It is puzzling, however, that the plan associates corruption only with the enforcement pillar, when it is obvious that the one common thread running through all the scandals listed above is corruption.

How widespread is this corruption? A survey by the poll group Social Weather Stations in 2003-2004 tells it all: 59 percent of lawyers surveyed said that many or very many of the police are corrupt; 49 percent of them (61 percent in Metro Manila) were aware of a case in their locality where a judge took a bribe, although only 8 percent (15 percent in Metro Manila) reported it. Among the judges surveyed, 62 percent estimated that either a few or some of their colleagues were corrupt.

Time is running out.