Why do victims and witnesses do not come forward to file charges or support cases in court after shootings, assaults and other serious crimes in the Philippines today? Their unwillingness to lodge complaints, support prosecutions or otherwise act to obtain justice speaks to the total lack of confidence in the country's rotten criminal justice system. Impunity is written large across the face of criminal justice in the Philippines: perpetrators of killings, torture, abductions and other gross abuses have easy assurances that they will get away with whatever they have done. And where these persons are themselves a part of the police, military or armed groups working on their behalf, impunity is all but guaranteed. Little wonder that attacks are carried out in broad daylight and in public places-a crowded market, the front of the victim's home, during a church service by men who don't even bother to conceal their faces or identities. They know full well that they will never be arrested; the victim's family may even be too terrified to admit seeing the perpetrators' faces. Where they do, some innocent persons can easily be found to take the place of the actual offenders. Either way, the lack of witnesses and other evidence together with disinterested and primitive investigating mean that few cases ever reach full trial in the courts.
No comments:
Post a Comment