Days of ‘hoodlums in robes’
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:35:00 10/08/2008
Solita Collas-Monsod’s Sept. 13 column (as usual feisty, incisive, insightful and forthright) made me recall the early 1990s, when, like today, the judiciary was buffeted by charges that hit deep into its armor of integrity and trustworthiness. It was a time the phrase “hoodlums in robes” became a street if not household word — recaptured vividly again by the editorial cartoon of that same Sept. 13 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
As a judge then in Legazpi City, I wrote Chief Justice Andres Narvasa that the judiciary “is now suffering from an image problem.” I then suggested, among other things, that it is time for the judiciary to “look inward,” that the judiciary must “conduct an honest to goodness effort to initiate and install judicial reforms resulting from our looking inward: finding/tracing deficiencies and problems in the judiciary and developing/installing the remedial measures to improve and make more effective and responsive the administration of justice.”
I also suggested the following: (1) conduct a management audit or survey in the judiciary; and (2) conduct a personnel audit or survey. (I also happen to be a management analyst professional; in fact, I was chief of the Organization and Methods, or O&M Staff, of the Bureau of Internal Revenue).
Out of the same sense of concern and commitment, I have sent a similar letter to Chief Justice Reynato Puno. In brief, I said “I believe it is time again for the Judiciary to look inward.” In other words, as Monsod aptly suggested in her Inquirer column — “Time for an examination of conscience.”
Incidentally, as a law practitioner, except for one case I handled, I have no complaints but praises for the Court of Appeals. I say this at every opportunity. I can explain this but there is not enough space.
EDMUNDO H. ESCALANTE, retired judge and former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Sorsogon Chapter
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