Oblivious to justice

In the news “At SC party, CJ could have danced all day (12/16/17),” Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno was reported as partying and having a good time despite threats to have her kicked out of the Supreme Court.

Downplaying her personal miseries, she tried to pat herself on the back with a boast about the good things she said she has done: “We prove that our judicial reforms (had borne fruit). From five to seven years, (trials) may now be shortened to six months to one year because of the continuous trials. That’s really fast.”

As usual, Sereno has ignored all complaints regarding the very slow delivery of justice in thousands of cases pending in the Supreme Court.

So many party-litigants and/or their lawyers are dying of old age, if not already dead, without seeing any light at the end of the tunnel as the Court takes its sweet time to promulgate decisions in cases appealed to it.

Our family’s case has been sleeping in that Court for 13 years now! It was “submitted for decision” since 2012!

The thing is, justices are not time-bound and are never bothered by the constitutional mandate that categorically requires them to decide cases within two years only.

Such delusional sense of entitlement (i.e., what is it “supreme” for if it cannot do whatever it wants to do or not do?) is infuriating.

It seems that those already in their late 60s are now just sticking it out for retirement purposes (until age 70) under a convoluted system that grants them benefits in the tens of millions of the people’s money despite their track record of laziness.

Ano ang silbi ng “continuous trials” sa ibaba kung pagdating sa Supreme Court natutulog naman ang kaso nang ilang dekada? (What’s the point of “continuous trials” in the lower courts if the Supreme Court sleeps on them for decades?)

MARIA MARGARITA AYTONA, marimar_ay@yahoo.com