Justice delayed is justice denied VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 09/23/2010

Justice delayed is justice denied

VIEWPOINTS

Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz

09/23/2010
Time and again, the sayings that delay in the administration of justice are in effect the perpetration of injustice. And the same negative perception and critical appreciation become even more aggravating with the thought that such an equation infallibly implicates the Justice department itself. Thus it is that the official purveyor of justice in effect becomes the cause of injustice.

This blatant contradiction cannot but adversely affect the mind-set of the people in general, and especially the victims of injustice — be this personal or institutional. 

In such a predicament, the sense and feeling of injustice come from no less than three directions: One, the unjust individual or corporate agent. Two, the unjust social structures and practices. Three, the unjust judicial branch of government.

It is bad enough when someone becomes the victim of injustice from the hands of a hoodlum, a goon or a crook. But it certainly becomes much worse when in addition thereto, no less than the courts of justice themselves eventually become the hindrances to justice if not the unaware purveyors of injustice. And this is precisely the errant and erratic situation in the country long since: First, there are more and more cases filed before the three sections of the department as there are more and more people with criminal minds and/or amoral stances. Second, there are much less operative courts in the land, especially so in the certain sections of the Philippines where “Law and Order” are practically non-existent. Third, the files of cases brought for adjudication but which precisely remain unresolved and undecided, are becoming higher and thicker..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100923com8.html