The Supreme Court will intensify its crackdown against the so-called “hoodlum in robes” and corrupt personnel in the judiciary starting this year.
Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin said on Monday that he has ordered a purge against “misfits and scalawags” in the courts, especially in the provinces where there is prevalence of corruption.
Bersamin specifically instructed Court Administrator and spokesman Midas Marquez to start the cleansing with the courts in his home province of Abra.
“I directed [Marquez] to start with [my] home province of Abra. That is a marching order… no matter if they are my relatives or not,” Bersamin said.
The Chief Justice came from a political clan in Abra. He is the brother of former governor Eustaquio Bersamin and slain former representative Luis “Chavit” Bersamin Jr.
The chief justice said that the campaign against corruption in judiciary should start in courts in the provinces where he believes there still is a strong perception that justice is only for the strong, the influential and the wealthy.
“Those judges and employees in the provinces who have contributed to this wrong perception about the judiciary will have to go,” the top magistrate warned.
With this perception, Bersamin said there is need to “purge the judiciary of misfits and scalawags and enforce the rules of discipline.”
He said this is why he has set the anti-corruption campaign as one of his priorities in his one-year tenure in the top judicial post.
Bersamin vowed to “institutionalize changes that are designed to expedite the administration of justice.”
The chief justice, who was appointed last November, also plans to revise the Rules of Court and implement reforms in the Bar exams as well as legal education in the country.
Bersamin admitted that court rules still l have provisions that institutionalize delay in resolution of cases, bringing the need “to update our procedural rules to make them embody and be attuned to the technological developments.”
The top magistrate pointed out that such reform “will make the judicial system responsive to the public need for quick dispensation of justice.”
Bersamin also vowed to initiate reforms in the Bar exams, proposing to law deans to study the “Pass/Fail” approach which is practiced in the United States instead of grading the exams and having topnotchers.
Lastly, the Chief Justice wants the country’s law schools to improve legal education by adopting best practices abroad.
“We should adopt the best practices abroad on the legal clinic to improve the quality of legal education and ensure access to justice,” he said.