From the desk of a poor-man's lawyer (Season 9)

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Behind me is Bacolod City's New Government Center.

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On my ninth year as a poor-man's lawyer, I fancy a scenario that the senate will call on me to testify in aid of legislation. Well, they often do that, don't they? So to prepare for the ocassion, I listed some important points that I believe I should throw at our senators when the time comes. If ever it won't come, I can gladly forward it at once to them.

1. Allotment for support from OFWs should be compulsory. Contracts with foreign employers should contain provision on sending the required allotment to the legal family and/or illegitimate children who have court order of support or even just a notarized agreement on support. POEA and OWWA should be given the enforcement roles on this aspect.

2. An accused in jail for more than 5 years should be given compensation regardless of the exceptions in the speedy trial law. This will alert the prosecution as to their roles in securing their witnesses and the supreme court in providing judges to courts needing them.

3. Resolving prosecutors should be different from trial prosecutors. The filing of the case with the prosecutor's office should not stop the running of the prescriptive period of the crime or offense so that the resolving prosecutors will have the duty to resolve them within a month rather than years. Imagine that a respondent in a case has to wait for two to four years for him to know whether a case against him is filed or not.

4. Legal processes in far flung areas should be managed by a legal process server attached with the nearest court of the area or a nearest post office inorder to ensure receipt by party litigants of their notices.

5. Each police precinct should have a lawyer. A lawyer can guide police officers in law enforcement and in proper procedural compliance in enforcing search warrants, warrant of arrest and even warrantless arrests as well as in taking judicial affidavits.

6. Mediation proceedings should not be limited to light offenses. It is high time to adopt some court-approved restorative justice system from light offenses to heinous ones. Sometimes, forgiveness and reconciliation are more powerful in restoring peace than a judgment based on available evidence.

7. Divorce law is needed. No need to file administration of property, judicial decration of presumptive deaths of spouses, legal separation, declation of nullity based on article 36 of the Family Code and narrate therein all of the unfair statements that can be attributed to another spouse. The world has divorce laws and Filipinos need to go through expensive local court procedure to be able to be freed from the marriage contract already nullified by the country of his/her foreign or foreign-naturalized spouse.

8. Alcoholic drinks should be taxed more. I bet that if a survey is done, 85% of criminal cases consisting of Rape, Murder, homicide, physical injuries, malicious mischief, alarms and scandals in our courts are results of after-having-too-much alcohol. Come to think of this: less alcohol consumption will result to less crimes which will lessen criminal lawyers, less alcohol will lessen alcohol-related diseases and a healthy workforce means healthy economy.

9. Judicial affidavits should be mandatory for all prosecution witnesses regardless of gravity of crime or offense. This is consistent with the right of the accused to be informed of the accusation and evidence against him. It can remain optional for the accused.

10. Our jail system should be geared towards education, skills and productivity and restorative justice.


*After reading it now, I realized that there are suggestions that should go to the Supreme Court rather that our legislators! LOL  my apologies. 2/11/15

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