How often do we hear of heart-breaking stories of suspects in crimes?major or minor?languishing in jail for a period longer than the maximum length of imprisonment imposable by law just because their cases are left hanging in the courts? For a long time, it seemed the plight of these inmates, who may be guilty or innocent?seemed to have been given only superficial attention by the government. But now things are changing dramatically? thanks to the judicial reforms such as the ?Justice on Wheels? initiated by the Supreme Court.   Over the last six months alone, some 650 inmates, including women and minors, were set free through the Justice on Wheels conceived by Chief Justice Reynato Puno to make the wheels of justice turn faster and to decongest courts with heavy caseloads. Marginalized members of society who often complain of being denied access to the justice system have every reason to hope of being treated fairly by the courts.

Of course, there are those who will look at this innovation with cynicism, considering that the Supreme Court itself is saddled with a huge backlog of cases year after year.

Through the Justice on Wheels program, judges go to the field aboard a bus to adjudicate and dispose of cases. Inside the bus are two courtrooms, complete with tables and benches for the judges, lawyers and litigants. When the program rolled off the ground in 2004, three mobile courts were put in operation. They were deployed to cities and municipalities without regular courts, detention centers or youth reception centers.

Judges, clerks of court, prosecutors and public defenders were assigned to the mobile courts wherever they went so that hearings could go unhampered. But the system was largely underutilized prompting the judiciary?s top officialdom to re-launch it on July 9, 2008, a week after the SC?s two-day national forum called ?Increasing Access to Justice by the Poor, Bridging Gaps and Removing Roadblocks.? The forum was attended by various stakeholders in the judicial system.

Subsequently, Chief Justice Puno led an on-site inspection of the Manila City Jail and launched the first JOW operation there. He was horrified at the sight of the unbearable and sub-human condition under which the inmates lived in the heavily congested jail. ?We should be sensitive to the plight of these people [the inmates].  You should consider their situation,? Puno told the regional trial court judges who came to witness how the JOW worked. ?The condition here at the Manila City Jail shocks the conscience. I don?t know what stronger words to use.?

The Chief Justice also instructed the regional trial court judges on hand to strictly disallow lawyers? motions for dilatory postponement of cases of inmates, especially those languishing in jail beyond the imposable penalty for the criminal offenses they are accused of.  At the end of that day, eight inmates at the city jail and four youth offenders at the Manila Youth Reception Center were freed, while another four were brought to nearby hospitals for urgent medical attention. One of them was suffering from elephantiasis, characterized by swelling of the limbs, which had been left untreated due to lack of medical funds or sheer apathy of prison officials.

After its Manila launch, the program rolled on to different parts of the country, with no less than the Chief Justice and Associate Justice Consuelo Ynares Santiago, the chairman, heading the team and supervising the trials even on weekends.

In Kalibo, Aklan, the mobile court conducted hearings last year in the midst of the havoc wrought by typhoon Frank. The roof of the Hall of Justice was blown away by the super-typhoon, while neck-deep floodwaters and waist-deep mud inundated the building, destroying court records, equipment and evidence in pending cases.

So far, about 3,500 cases have been adjudicated through the mobile courts, with a success rate of 85-100 percent, since the scheme was adopted. In some instances, cases as old as 10 to 20 years involving relatives quarreling over parcels of lands have been settled.  One of those resolved was a conflict between two warring families, which has been going on for years and even resulted in bloodbath.

Aside from rendering free legal aid, the judiciary officials take advantage of their out-of-town trips to conduct information campaign and dialog with members of the community about justice-related matters.   In Zambales, some 100 Aetas attended a lecture on the rights of indigenous peoples, agrarian and environmental laws and rights and access to justice of indigenous women and children.

Chief Justice Puno likened the program to an experiment ?when we see the highest officials of the judiciary coming down from their ivory tower and giving a human face to our system of justice, showing compassion, giving heart to our justice system.?  He vowed to bring the program to every nook and cranny of the country to address the common grievance that the justice system is unresponsive to the needs of ordinary citizens and the social justice mandate of the Constitution?a major cause of public discontent and political instability.

?When you consider the realities on the ground, the poor and the marginalized oftentimes play in an uneven legal field.  So the JOW program is predicated on the rationale of bringing social justice to the disadvantaged sectors of our society as a living reality,? he said.

The program has received a big boost with the expected arrival of five more buses this year courtesy of the World Bank and the provincial governments of Leyte and Sarangani. This means that Justice On Wheels will have a fleet of eight buses.

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The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission may be an obscure law enforcement agency but it is trying to live up to its mandate without much fanfare.  The commission, under the Office the President, is probably the only agency created by the previous administration, which has been retained by the Arroyo administration.  And it?s pleasant to know that it is doing its part in the crackdown on criminality. 

In its 2008 year-end report furnished to this journalist, the body, through one of its commissioners, Undersecretary Butch Belgica, said it had focused, among others, on the problem of youth gangsterism and juvenile crimes.

The commission listed a total of 233 destructive youth gangs in the National Capital Region alone, it monitored 79 serious crimes directly attributed to these groups in the third quarter of last year alone. The common offenses committed were robbery/holdup, snatching, violence against persons (physical injuries to murder), theft of cars and payroll.

The commission noted the presence of chapters of internationally known youth gangs.  These mostly originated from the United States such as the True Brown Style, Creeps, Bloods, Reckless, Asiatic Gangsta, Vatos and Locos. Some gang leaders supposedly coax new recruits to commit robbery and physical violence as part of initiate rites. Youth gangs with international ties are said to be very brazen and daring in breaking the law, taking advantage of rights under the Juvenile Justice Act.

What is shocking is the commission?s findings that youth gangs have proliferated and their involvement in crimes were partly traced to the fact that they are not likely to be prosecuted because they are minors, who are exempted from imprisonment under the Juvenile Justice Act. Drug addiction and neglect of parents were also cited as major factors for juvenile crimes. It recommended continuous profiling and monitoring of youth-street gangs and increased police visibility in areas where they converge.