The dishonorable list of drug protectors
It was unfortunate the reaction of Du30 to the order of the Chief Justice for the judges named in the list of alleged protectors of illegal drug dealers and users not to surrender to the President or the police unless there were warrants of arrest. Legally, the Chief Justice was right. But in a war zone there are no legal niceties.
In the case of Judge Antonio Reyes of Baguio City, why he was included in the list was partly through the institutionalized incompetence of the judicial system to weed out corrupt judges before the situation becomes so bad. There are no proactive measures to snoop around and administratively correct judges so in love with the smell of money. In fairness, this is also true in practically all government agencies.
So in the case of Judge Antonio Reyes, Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno tried to protect him as any good superior would when a subordinate is down and needs help. In contrast, however, and the Chief Justice might want to know, most if not all of the practicing lawyers here in Baguio City we talked to regarding the matter wanted to have a party. Oh! They were happy!
As one employee at the Baguio City Justice Hall said, all it takes to know about the truth of the matter is to dig out all the illegal drugs cases Judge Antonio Reyes had disposed of. A very popular comment of practicing lawyers is even a convicted illegal drug dealer already serving sentence at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa can be sprang out on a mere motion for reconsideration. A verification is surely in order on this matter but many lawyers here have already “taken judicial notice.”
There was also another judge here in Baguio City of the same reputation. So many practicing lawyers could have taken the gun and shot him, but they were not as much a killer as Du30. So they endured as most other government employees in other government agencies endured the corruption and incompetence of their big bosses. But God was kind that he prevented the judge from committing any further crime (forever and ever) which, most likely, would have continued without the Supreme Court knowing about it.
Then there was another judge who never resolved so many cases for more than a decade. Well, some were resolved but much, much more were not. Many practicing lawyers just grumbled about it but it was presumed that nobody ever filed an administrative case against the judge considering the natural aversion of lawyers to doing that. Until we met a foreigner who claimed he wrote the Supreme Court about this and ….… nothing happened.
There was also this judge who suffered from a stroke or something. For a long time, his cases were not attended to. Every now and then the pairing judge would work on some urgent matters. Up to now, however, after many years, nobody yet has been appointed to that branch, although another judge sits there twice a week which, of course, is an added burden. In contrast, some judges in outlying areas hereabouts only have less than twenty cases to justify their monthly salaries.
This is not to single out the courts for, as we stated a number of times here, we all have blood in our hands for not preventing the drug menace from going this far.**
