Justice may be blindfolded but she has a third eye

What a heartening experience. Despite the constant drum of raindrops on the roof and the ceaseless pounding of habagat waves in our corner of the world, came these friends from the neighborhood to enliven my drab evening with an interesting discussion on the jailing of Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada.

Rene: Pare, what’s this game they’re again playing? They’re giving a taste of VIP treatment to big Senate monsters?

Crispin: What else do you expect? They’re truly Very Important Persons. Aren’t they, Bay Don?

Rene: Important persons? That’s the justice system for you!?

Lito: Look, Bay Renren. Lady Justice’s eyes are covered.

Don: Yes, but they are covered to signify that justice is not supposed to favor anyone, be he rich or poor, be he a state official or a  street cleaner.

Lito: But the reality, is our justice system more often than not frustrates our expectations. In the actual grind of the wheels of justice in our society, what we see is disgusting. And what we hear is nauseating: “Justice will have its way, no one will be spared, there will be no whitewash!” The next thing we learn, the criminal, because he is wealthy or an influential person or a high government official, is accorded special treatment—one vastly different from that given an ordinary person or poor citizen. Worse, the next thing we know the criminal goes scot free!

Rene: Lito’s right. Lady Justice is a big joke in our country.

Don: But that’s because she has a third eye.

Lito, Rene and Crispin, as if stumbling on an unexpected discovery, chorus in surprise: A third eye!

Don: Yes, an invisible one that looks more favorably on the high and mighty. It is this eye that determines who shall be fondled by the gentle fingers of privileged treatment. Not based on the gravity of the crime but on the social status of the accused.

Crispin: Come on, the Lady’s put up there just to make it appear as if justice is within the reach of everyone, regardless of social status, as if everyone is equal before the law.

Rene: Come on, there’s no third eye. Only two eyes, and they’re covered so that Lady Justice will not see when the scale she holds is being weighed down to one side by a bucketful of lies.

Lito: Yeah, that’s why Philippine justice isn’t be able to recognize big-time thieves!

Don: So why is she able to recognize the rich, the influential and the powerful?

—DON PAGUSARA,

donpagusara@yahoo.com