A group of human rights lawyers has applauded the action of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to lower the recommended bail for poor litigants in criminal cases and to withdraw cases filed before the first-level courts with “no reasonable certainty of conviction.”
“The Department of Justice’s recent initiatives are certainly welcome,” the National Union of People’s Lawyers said, in a statement.
This came after DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla issued Department Circular (DC) Nos. 008 and 011 mandating the lowering of bail bond for indigent accused.
The withdrawal of cases before the lower courts with “no reasonable certainty of conviction” is contained in Department Circular No. 008,
DC 008 directs prosecutors that “only quality criminal cases backed by credible evidence will be filed in court” or those cases “with reasonable certainty of conviction.”
Apart from the municipal trial courts, the other first-level courts in the country are metropolitan trial courts, municipal trial courts in cities, and municipal circuit trial courts.
These courts have jurisdiction over criminal cases with a penalty of imprisonment of less than six years.
Reduction in bail is under DC 011 which mandates prosecutors to recommend only P10,000 or 50 percent of the recommended bail under the DOJ’s 2018 Bail Bond Guide, whichever is lower.
Remulla said that with the reduced bail, many detained individuals – particularly indigent persons – would be released on bail.
Remulla explained that many criminal cases filed in courts against indigent persons are bailable but they “are unable to afford the amount set by the courts upon the recommendation of the prosecutors.”
With the new circular on bail recommendation, Remulla said the DOJ “expects the release of many detained individuals on bail.”
NUPL said that “the two initiatives will help de-clog court dockets and decongest prisons all over the country.”
“We hope though that this quite limiting threshold of indigency must be amplified to take into full account actual capacity to post bail,” the group added.
At the same time, the NUPL asked the DOJ that “the review of pending criminal cases based on the standard of reasonable certainty of conviction must be extended to cases pending before the Regional Trial Courts, especially those involving non-bailable charges against activists and human rights defenders.”
“The application of this standard must also be complemented by meaningful efforts to improve investigative and evidence-gathering capacities so that human rights violators will not be afforded impunity and victims will be given a chance at attaining justice,” it said.
It also expressed hope that the DOJ should “address grievous cases of arbitrary detention arising from trumped-up charges of nonbailable crimes.”
It lamented that a number of such cases were being done through the planting of evidence, fabrication of testimonies, mechanical and arbitrary insertions of names of activists and human rights defenders in criminal charges, and bogus preliminary investigations where respondents could not participate because subpoenas were sent to fictitious, non-existent or incorrect addresses.
“The employment of these methods, to name a few, due to devious political motives has led to the cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment of political detainees in overcrowded jails,” it said.