why we must adopt the jury system

7/25/2019 Why We Must Adopt the Jury System

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Why The Filipino People Must Adopt the Jury Systems?By: Atty. Marlowe Camello, Member: Philippines and California Bars

Homeland, California, USAEmail: [email protected]

Updated, Aug 10, 2015

Brief, frank and direct answer to this title question: Because our Judiciary hasno shield or has no full proof protection against the onslaught of political illegal intrusions

by, and from, powerful officials in the Executive and Legislative branches of the

government over Judicial functions. The Judiciary is a lame duck government branch

which likewise need a voting support of the people through the peoples vote by means

of the secret jury ballots. The Philippine Judiciary does not enjoy the direct vote of the

common people in justice which they inherently possess with their sovereign power and

authority under Article II, Section 1, of the constitution.

The set up of Philippine Justice is structurally undemocratic contrary to our

democratic form of government as if it is a personal property of powerful public officials.

It is a government monopoly under the exclusive control of whoever is in charge of running

the government. It is inutile because it is fundamentally toothless for the reason that you,

as a sovereign, although common private or ordinary citizen, have no deciding voice (or

vote) in its judicial functions.

Philippine justice has excluded and deprived you of your right and supreme

power to participate in the function of justice because it considers you as without

perception between right or wrong for not being a lawyer. As far as Philippine

Justice is concerned, it implies that you are just a legal moron and that justice is

none of your business -wa la kang pak i sa hus t i s ya sang -ayon sa m ga abogado a t

ng m ga huw es dah i l i kaw d aw ay i sang b obo lamang . Should you accept this

insidious judicial implication that you are a legal moron? This statement is not

intended to insult you but to steer your indignance on the way the Philippine justice

system has been set up of discriminating you to have a voice in justice all these

years since you were born as a citizen of a free and democratic nation while, and

as if, you are a mere slave of your own local colonists, your greedy politicians,

many of whom you elect each time.

As of today, as you read this article, the Justice System of the Philippines is


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reserved only for the elites of society but dont you know that because you are excluded

to have a hand in justice, that it is the basic reason why the Philippine government is ultra

mega corrupt? You have been excluded to vote your good conscience in justice to

remove government thieves from public service. It is a government monopoly which we

inherited from Spain. All Philippine presidents, past and present, as well as by the

lawmakers, and all other government officials all throughout the country dearly love this

monopoly, because they can use it to cover-up their crimes and it keeps them untouchable

by the law. If given the chance to use your vote in justice, would you vote to send a

corrupt official to jail? Of course you would. If you have the power and right to VOTE

THEM INTO OFFICE during election, you must also have that same power TO VOTE

THEM OUT OF OFFICE as well as VOTE THEM TO JAIL for fooling you by means of the

justice system.

It is time for us, common and poor citizens, to peacefully revolt against this

wholesale judicial discrimination by the government and government officials against us.

There is one truly peaceful and orderly revolt, that we can embark on and use without

pulling a trigger of any hand gun or hand grenade. That peaceful revolt is known as

the JURY SYSTEMS revoltwith which you can VOTE ABUSIVE OFFICIALS OUT OF

OFFICE as well as VOTE THEM INTO JAIL. If you think this is impossible, please dont

worry, because there is a way and you will find it out if you will just continue to read about

how the jury systems work.

By contrast in the United States, a U.S. President is afraid to commit a crime in

office because ordinary American legal idiots, the people who do not know the law, are

the authority (under guidance or supervision by judges) to decide in justice to send him

to prison for his crimes. Can we in the Philippines, not a common law country,

possibly emulate or adopt the American Jury system of justice so that we, Filipino

common idiots of law, like the American common idiots in the U.S., can equally

and ably send to jail our ELITE IDIOTS in the Philippine government? ANSWER:

Definitely YES. How? Please read entirely this article.

The Lame Duck Judges, Justices, and Prosecutors

The justices, judges, government prosecutors are highly vulnerable to the abuses


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and whims of powerful public officials because they do not enjoy the shielding sovereign

power of the people. They are like errand boys and girls under the control and

manipulation by greedy and corrupt powerful officials from the President down to

Governors, Mayors, even Barrangay Captains as well as by Senators and Congressmen.

Now-a-days, they are just as close with each other by cellphone away at any moment

of the day or night. Such high off icials use the Philippine Justice system to protect

themselves against prosecution over the crimes and corruption in the performance of their

official duties for their personal and family enrichment. Government infestation of grafters

is increasing (and accumulating in many public offices) and they could not be removed

from public office. Corrupt high officials share in the bounty obtained by junior grafters

and they conspire together to protect each other from prosecution via the justice system.

Some lawyers, not all of them of course, although not public officials, fool their clients

because of their superior knowledge of the law and the clients are simply helpless and

scared to put up a legal battle against attorneys.

The Basic Solution Against Government Corruption?

The solution is Justice Reform through the creation of the Jury Systems Law.

It is a devise that will give the people in the private sector a deciding voice and vote in

the investigation and indictment of crime offenders as well as in the trial and

conviction of such offenders. The Jury System shall break the political bondage and

slavery of Justices, Judges, and Prosecutors from the President who appointed them and

from politicians and powerful public officials who had recommended them to their public

positions.

The Jury System is itself the Law School in which the people can be educated and

taught by judges to participate and decide in the justice system of the country. Without

the Jury System, where else shall the people obtain their education in law? Yes, there

are. Among them are the Death Squad masterminds, the NPA, MILF, MNLF, Warlords,

Corrupt Officials, etc., and what do they teach? They teach people how to kill people, to

kidnap people for ransom, to kill their opponents in politics, among others. The other

teachers are the very corrupt officials who teach their subordinates how to steal the public

treasury so that they can earn their own supervisory commissions. Is it any wonder why

that there are so much killings and government corruption around the country? The


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people in the private sector cannot be scared to decide in justice because their jobs

cannot be easily sabotaged by powerful public officials.

Powerful Corrupt Officials Are Never Interested

To Prevent Government Corruption.

The president, lawmakers and most lawyers are not expected to help enact such

a law, the Jury Systems Law, because it is against their personal interest for self-

enrichment in office. They want to preserve their monopoly and opportunity to easily steal

government funds under the present set up of the undemocratic government controlled

Philippine justice system. For obvious reason, we private citizens with our leaders in the

PRIVATE SECTOR are the only ones who can be relied on to dismantle such a monopoly,

and the justice monopolists, by the adoption of the Jury System with our own efforts alone

through the initiative process in RA 6735. Please read on with the rest of this article and

learn how this recommendation can be particularly done.

The Competing Groups Over the

Wealth of Society in a Democracy

In a democracy, such as the Philippines, there are two distinct endless competing

groups which both greedily desire to obtain the wealth and bounty of society, namely: The

MAJORITY Group and the other is the MINORITY Group. Between these two groups,

whoever has exclusive control over all the elements in the administration of justice gets

them all while the other gets none at all.

The Elements in the Administration of Justice

Administration of justice involves certain elements, namely: the Law, Evidence,

Procedures, Instructions or Rules, Finances and Deciding Power. To prevent the

Minority from defrauding the Majority and vice versa, it is imperative that the said elements

shall be fairly allocated between them to keep and check their competing balance of

power, as follows:


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Allocation of the Elements in

the Administration of Justice

To the Majority, the element of the Deciding Powerin justice must be vested in

it because it is the logical title holder of the sovereign majority rule in the Philippine

democratic society pursuant to Article II, Section 1, of the Philippine Constitution. This

allocation is befitting of the status of the Majority because its members are the Masters

over the Minority - explained later in this discussion.

To the Minority, the elements of Law , Evidence, Procedures, Instructions or

Rulesand Financesshall be vested in it because it is the proper expert custodian and

trustee of the Law, Evidence, Procedures, Instructional Rules, and Finances whose

members are the Servants of the Majority.

Explanation about the MAJORITY GROUP

The common and private citizens essentially belong to the Majority Group because

their population makes up the absolute majority of Philippine democracy. Sovereignty and

majority rule is vested in them. They are referred to as the Public and Master in our

democracy as secured to its members in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution which

states: Sovere ign ty res ides in the peop le and a l l governm ent author i t y emanates

f rom them . Unfortunately today, politicians recognize the people as masters when

begging for their votes only during election time. Once they are elected in office, they act,

and assume, with the personality of a master and look down upon you, the common and

private citizen, as mere second class citizen and beggar of justice.

Explanation about the MINORITY GROUP

Public officials and government employees belong to the Minority Group because


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their combined total is much less in number than the members of the Majority Group. The

community of the Minority is known as the Republic and it is officially called the

Republic of the Philippines. Perhaps, their combined total is only around 10% out of the

entire population of the Philippines. Sovereignty is not vested in it and its power emanates

from the Majority, the people in the private sector. Its members consciously or

unconsciously think that they are the leaders forgetting the fact that they are the servants

of the public or common people. In most occasions, they show arrogantly their true

tyrannic characters when you, a member of the Majority Group, criticize them for their acts

of corruption and human rights abuses.

Why Is the Minority Group Richer

Than the Majority Group?

The CENTRAL ISSUE at the moment is: Why is the Minority Group very RICH,

whereas the MAJORITY Group is very POOR? Of course, the Minority Group is a

thousand times richer than the Majority Group because the former is currently the

exclusive holder and controller over all the elements of justice as earlier mentioned

above. By JUSTICE (if there is such a thing in the Philippines), the Majority Group has

been totally deprived of its rightful voice or deciding power in Justice in spite of the fact

that its members, like you, are the Masters in our democratic society as gleaned in Article

II, Section 1, of the constitution.

This is the fundamental flaw in the governance of Philippine democracy and

THE BASIC CAUSE OF THE PERVASIVE CORRUPTION in all levels of governmentwhich can never be eliminated by merely changing or electing personalities with

TRAPO and NON-TRAPO public servants. What is needed is judicial reform and

not electoral reform devices. Experience has already told us so, repeatedly, in all

elections since the days of Manuel L. Quezon all throughout with, and between, Gloria

M. Arroyo. Are we, anti-graft crusaders, not yet educated enough already to learn our


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lesson that mere election of the so-called best candidate is nothing but an exercise in

futility?

By our own complacency in the private sector, we have helped degrade Philippine

democracy into a bogus democracy similar to the many so-called democratic countries

around the world. It operates more as an aristocracy, a government of the few to enrich

and empower the few nationally or locally.

Justice has been set up undemocratically and made none of your business in spite

of the fact that you are a member of the majority group of people mentioned in Article

II, Section 1, of the Constitution. It is an exclusive government monopoly which, in the

opinion of this writer, is flagrantly unconstitutional in derogation to the said provision of

the Philippine Constitution and outright discriminatory to the great majority of Philippine

democratic society, the poor Filipino people. This monopoly has totally deprived you, the

common people, of your rightful voice and share in justice affairs resulting to the loss of

your rightful share in the bounty and wealth of the country and the needed education of

the common people. In effect vesting the deciding power of justice exclusively in the

government has factually classified you, a private citizen, as mere second class citizen,

a wholesale discrimination of the poor that comprises the greatest membership of the

Majority. This monopoly keeps the members of the Minority entirely unaccountable

judicially for their fraudulent and illegal acts against you, a member of the Majority Group,

as their Masters. Instead, they made you, an ordinary citizen, a slave of your own

servant.

This monopoly is bolstered, by hook or by crook, such as loading the executive

department with retired army and police generals, to serve as symbolic subordinate

officers of a commander-in-chief to keep a military-like chain of command over such

military appointees whose loyalty does not belong to the people but to the commander-in-

chief. This is just one of the many schemes employed by the head of the Minority Group

to protect the interest of its members specially the personal interests of the President


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regardless of whether such interest is legal or illegal such as kick-back commissions in

government procurement transactions and to grab revenues of government owned and

controlled government gaming and amusement bureaus or commissions.

In provincial and local governments, this monopoly is used to protect the interests

of their public officials and police agents of their incomes from the operators of

prostitution dens, jueteng and other illegal numbers game - the very reason that such

illegal activities makes it impossible to stop.

When conflict of interests and rights arise between the Majority and the Minority,

justice always gives undue preference to the interest of the minority - what a shame!!

Ultimate Solution to Graft and Corruption

And Human Rights Abuses

Let us DISMANTLE theunconstitutional government monopoly of justicewith

the adoption of the Grand Jury and Trial Jury Systems to allow you, the common man

or woman, to exercise your sovereign power and authority as ordained in Article II,

Section 1, of the Constitution. This recommendation does not mean that we dismantle

the justice system but simply to reform the justice system so as to create a system of

check and balance of power between the sovereign power of the people and the

government administrative power of public officials. The dismantling of the monopoly

or exclusive government control of justice is what we must do - and not dismantling

of justice.

The concept of the jury system may have had entered the mind of President

Ramon Magsaysay when he said: Those w ho have less in l i fe , mu s t have mo re in

law.


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There is a stereo type objection among elites of Philippine society, specially among

lawyers (including myself when I was still practicing law in the Philippines), I often hear

once I mention about creating the jury system because, according to us, the common

people are legal ignoramuses. Also, they say, that Filipinos are basically corrupt and

can easily be bribed and, therefore, the jury system will never work in the Philippines. I

would like to state at this stage that such objections are either irrelevant or baseless. I

request the reader to reserve his or her judgment on those issues until after going over

the rest of this article where these issues are properly explained.

To dismantle the government monopoly and exclusive control of justice, it is

imperative that the sovereign majority of the people consisting of the citizens in the

private sector be enabled to have a deciding vote or voice in justice, and the means to

accomplish that is by the adoption of thejury systems as I have intimated earlier.

Juries are the ultimate vitalization of the peoples constitutional power and

authority.The peoples power exercised through the juries is more impelling than in their

exercise of their electoral power. Juries will speed up the administration of justice fairly

and freely with your independent direct decision without arbitrariness or whims from the

undue influence of dictators of justice such as the president, governors, mayors, etc.

With your vote in the Juries, decisions in justice can come out within shorter periods of

time (normally less than a year) from date of indictment up to the date of jury verdict

instead of 6 to 12, or even 18, years in the present set up of the unconstitutional inutile

Philippine government monopolized justice system.

When seated as a juror, you are not a mere ordinary citizen, you are clothed with

constitutional sovereign power as a Master in our democratic society. You are not even

required to explain your judgment by any judge or high officials because they are merely

your servants in the government. There is no rule of law in the universe that servants can

demand an explanation of their master for his decision.


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By what authority is the adoption of the jury systems constitutionally

allowed? It is based in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution which states, that:

Sovere ign ty res ides in the Peop le and a l l go vernm ent author i t y emanates f rom

them.

Juries are the most effective peaceful permanent civilized intelligent and

respectable anti-graft device ever invented in truly organized democracies to keep

permanent decency in their governments. Juries are the common anti-graft devices that

have made such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Britain, even Hong Kong

which is now a part of communist China and the United States exceptionally exemplary

stable, peaceful, economically progressive, and makes their peoples greatly united in

supporting their governments. Additionally in the U.S., it further has theGrand Jury

system to prevent a mafia style government.

I prefer to recommend the U.S. type jury systems for the Philippines for four basic

reasons over the jury system of other countries:

1. We have substantially copied the American (U.S.) democratic form of

government and its bill of rights as well as the U.S. Federal Rules of Court;

2. The U.S. Federal jury systems (USFJS) do not require prior legal

education of its citizens in order to qualify for jury duty wherein jurors are simply

instructed of the properly law that applies to a case before them as a jury. Its jury system

for jury trial prefers citizens with average intelligence and complete ignorance of the lawand facts about the case they will hear and try before reporting for jury duty. Its purpose

is to avoid confusion with the instruction on the law and facts that are specifically

applicable to the case at hand against the laws and facts they learned by hearsay outside

the court room.


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3. The USFJSitself as it operates all over the country 5 days a week, 52 weeks

a year, is the means to provide legal education to the broad mass of people, free of

charge, under the guidance of presiding judges who are the best sources of the

knowledge of the law for the people in the entire country. They get their instructions on

the law from the authorities of the law instead of from outlaws and scofflaws.

4. The American (U.S.) type of democracy such as the Philippine type of

democracy, cannot adequately protect its government from corruption and bill of rights

of its people without the type of juries that they have instituted in their justice system.

Without participation of the Filipino people in our justice system, we are not likewise able

to protect our democratic form of government. Guarding Philippine democracy by

electoral processes alone is not enough for its protection once every 3 or 6 years. It

needs the votes of the people through justice 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, all over

the country to eradicate the vultures in the government that are born each day.

Juries after all are nothing but procedural devices and used to officially educate legal

ignoramus citizens through pre-set jury instructions to learn the laws, to apply their laws,

and to seek protection from the laws under the supervisory guidance of presiding judges

to speed up the administration of justice.

Juries do not necessarily diminish, abolish, amend or add substantive rights except

where a jury systems law incorporates certain criminal acts in the adoption of the jury

system. Usage of Juries will logically ease the back log of cases in court all over the

country. They are the devices that will implement the constitutional mandate for the

speedy and fair administration of justice for society.

Juries are easier to operate in actual practice than you think as has been

personally observed by this proponent of these systems. Convening jurors is just as easy

as summoning a witness to appear in court under pain of being held in contempt of court

for disobedience to a summons for jury duty.


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The Grand Jury system is the device of the sovereign people that will enforce

(not merely beg for) transparency in the government through its unique and

compulsive subpoena powers. It operates ULTRA secretly to counter-act the secret

means usually employed by crime offenders in perpetuating crimes and to prevent trial

by publicity. Disobedience to a grand jury subpoena can hold a disobedient witness liable

of the crime for obstruction of justice, for which, its convicted offender can suffer

imprisonment from 3 to 5 years in jail.

The effectiveness and success of both juries (Grand Jury and Trial Jury) in keeping

a respectable decency in the governments and the unity, political and economic stability

of the people and various states of the United States have been proven for over 200

years now. The common American people over 200 years ago when they started using

the jury systems were not even as well informed or educated as the Filipino people of

today.

One of the Presidents of the U.S. who tried to manipulate a grand jury was the late

U.S. President Nixon who could have been indicted and convicted for obstruction of

justice had he not voluntarily resigned to avoid such consequence after all his

lieutenants were convicted and sent to prison for obstruction of justice, among others,

in trying to protect him in the infamous Watergate Scandal which the grand jury found him

to have helped orchestrate.

Prior legal education of the people is unnecessary

and irrelevant for the adoption of the jury system

First of all, the Jury System is created basically for the legal ignoramus and not

necessarily for lawyers or elites of society such as public officials, lawmakers, or judges.

In the U.S. jury system of justice after which the herein proposed jury system is patterned,

the people need not be educated in law to serve for jury duty. The less educated they are

in law, the better (as explained later). All that is required of a juror mentally is average


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intelligence (not expert legal intelligence) that is capable of distinguishing between right

and wrong.

Common people learn to serve in juries by jury instruction which is prepared in a

simplified day-to-day language - meaning they will be guided or supervised what to do in

the court room with easily understood procedures. In fact in the U.S. or in California

particularly, highly educated jurors including lawyers and veteran (repeat) jurors are often

outrightly rejected from jury duty by expert court room trial attorneys to serve for jury duty.

If Jurors need not have prior legal education, how can

they make legal decisions without knowing the law?

Jurors will learn the law, the precise and correct law, applicable to the case

presented to them by way of Jury Instructions. Jury instructions are restatement of laws,

rules and regulations in simplified phrases or sentences used in customary day-to-day

communication in their locality in such a way that even a 16-year old teenager with

average intelligence can understand a jury proceeding.

Likewise, jurors by jury instructions again will be supervised or guided by a

presiding judge on how to arrive at their jury verdict but they will not be told which way

they decide a case. During a jury trial, a court translator is employed to translate the

proceedings from English to the local dialect of the jurors and vice versa in the proposed

jury law this writer has drafted.

Jury instruction for a particular jury trial is usually formulated jointly by the Presiding

Judge, the Prosecutor (in criminal cases) and by the Defense Attorney in an in chamber

conference with no one else present other than these 3 court dignitaries. It is a

conference before a jury trial begins by which they agree (to disagree) what issues shall

be tried. The prosecutor presents his theory on the case and the defense attorney will

do the same with his counter-theory. In the conference, they do not debate the issues.


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They just agree what to prove or disprove at the trial. The jurors are not allowed to

import legal theories of their own regardless of how much legal expertise or special legal

studies they have had on the subject. Violation of this instruction can end up in a hung

jury or mistrial on an error of law.

Jurors are not researchers for the court or for the parties. They simply sit, keep

absolutely silent (not even to talk among themselves as jurors until they are told to do so),

listen or hear the evidence, and at the proper time as instructed to deliberate and decide

the case on the basis of the particular law, as instructed, that governs the case.

Research on the law and evidence are the responsibility of the respective attorneys,

prosecution and defense. Jurors are constantly reminded that they should disregard any

law they know that did not come about from the jury instructions issued by the judge.

Why is pre-legal education by jurors unnecessary?

The reason why highly educated jurors are excused or rejected from jury duty is

due to their sub-conscious tendency to offer their own legal theory of a case during jury

deliberation in violation of the specific official jury instructions on the proper law given to

them at the jury trial of a case. They think that their theory in the case is more superior

than the jury instruction given by the judge and the contending parties in a case.

Other jurors are then swayed to their line of reasoning (because they are lawyers

or veteran jurors) in disregard of the jointly approved jury instruction on the law issued to

them by the presiding judge. Allowing a lawyer to sit as a juror is a recipe for a mistrial or

hung jury and a waste of the precious time of the court, the attorneys, and of course of

the jurors because the jurors have no authority under any condition to modify or change

a jury instruction in law.

Example of a mistrial (or hung jury) by the wise

but decided, instead, by the legal ignoramuses


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You may have seen the prototype jury trial in the form of the impeachment

proceedings of ex-president Joseph Estrada. Prominent among the jurors in that

proceedings where a certain very intelligent scolding juror who tried to lecture the

audience and the other was an artistic dancing juror who was acting like clown in

complete disregard of the impeachment jury instruction by their presiding justice. They

arrogantly thought that they were the brightest girls of the jury whose minds were

overpolluted with legal and political theories but the result was a mistrial as you know.

Instead the said trial was decided by the simple legal ignoramuses of the streets.

Why jurors should not learn or read a legal

dictionary or any other law when called as a trial juror.

In a jury trial, the jurors must know nothing about any law, EXCEPT the law that

is stated to them by the presiding judge by way of a simplified jury instruction. All the

laws in the world that they learned are completely irrelevant. Their minds must be

completely free from legal pollution to avoid confusion with other laws they have learned

when they enter the deliberating room to make their decision.

It is not that easy for a juror

to solicit bribes. Why?

As to the concerns that jurors can easily be corrupted or bribed because they are

poor, this can rarely ever happen. In great and overwhelming majority of cases, jurors

come to court for the first time of their life or no more than once each year. Once they

get impaneled, they will be occupied listening to jury instructions with admonitions to pay

full attention to each and every instruction. Failure to obey this rule will render a juror

liable for escort by a court sheriff to jail for direct contempt of court. As a first timer in

court, such juror would not know what to do inside the court room much less knowing how

to solicit a bribe.


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Question: If you were in the shoes of such juror, would you be tenacious enough

to go around soliciting bribes while the presiding judge is lecturing you on how to serve

as a juror? If someone thinks that jurors may be picked from among corrupt officials in

the government, I am very certain that such a juror will never ever be able to land a jury

seat in the first base. Public officials and employees are disqualified from jury service.

First of all, under the proposed jury rules and instruction, even a close relative of

a public official or employee is also disqualified fromr jury duty. If such a public official

or employee attempts to snake in to serve, he can easily be peremptorily rejected without

any argument by any of the opposing counsels in the selection process to empanel a jury.

In a peremptory challenge, the moving party to reject without debate the prospective juror

by simply asking the Presiding Judge with such polite words as: I thank and excuse juror

(so and so) from serving, your Honor. Each counsel has 7 peremptory challenges to

exercise out of the 28 jurors who whose names will be drawn by lottery and invited to the

court room. Only 12 of them plus 2 reserves will be seated finally.

Who controls the impaneling of Jurors?

Impaneling of jurors are chosen by lottery under the exclusive collective control by

the Presiding Judge, Prosecutor, and the Defense counsel, of course with the assistance

of a jury commissioner in summoning the jurors to court. Any person or public official who

will interfere in that process can be subject to either contempt of court or for an indictment

for obstruction of justice by a grand jury. If the judge, prosecutor, or defense counsel will

tolerate such interference, under the rules such judge, prosecutor, or defense, is

mandatorily required to report such interference to a grand jury and failure to make such

report instead will render such judge, prosecutor, or defense attorney, likewise liable for

indictment by a grand jury for obstruction of justice.

Is there an alternative besides the jury systems to

stop government corruption and human rights abuses?


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Answer:I dont think there is any at all, even for a hundred years, unless

empowerment of the people to decide in justice is granted and guaranteed. Participation

of the common people, like you, in justice with the deciding power allocated to them IS

THE KEY to the stability and decency for a successful Philippine democracy. We already

have tried everything including martial law and changing the constitution many times to

give more power to the government and we are still in square one as far as removing

untouchable corrupt and abusive government officials is concerned.

There is no substitute to the Jury System of justice. U.S. President Thomas

Jefferson said: The ju ry i s t he on l y ancho r eve r ye t imag ined by man tha t can h o ld

a gove rnmen t t o the p r i nc ip l es o f i t s co ns t i t u t ion.

More empowerment of the people, not more government empowerment, is the

most effective solution to graft so that neither the people nor the government

officials can fool each other. We are forgetting that the strength of democracy is in the

people and not in the strength of public officials. Every any other solution will be wishful

thinking, if we will always totally rely on the president and his or her underlings to preventgovernment corruption because they are the fundamental source of the problem of graft

and corruption in the first place.

If jurors know nothing of laws, how

can they explain their verdicts?

As explained earlier, jurors learn the law applicable to a case by jury instruction

from the presiding judge. Their prior education in law is completely unnecessary.

Juries are the direct replica of the sovereign authority of the people. They are the

random sampling of the Masters of society. Its members, the jurors, are chosen by lottery


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from the names of registered voters in their districts. Jurors are not appointees of any

powerful official and they owe no duty to explain their jury verdict to nobody. Jurors

merely write their final verdict on in a prescribed form under the jury systems law to be

read in open court.

The People Through the Juries, As Masters of Society,

Have the Supreme Right to Decide in Justice Than the Government.

In the natural order of things, when the Master decides (on a good thing) in good

faith to the best of his judgment, his servants have no right to demand for an explanation

on his decision. He is only answerable to God, his creator, and not to any TRAPO,

regardless of whether such a politician is the president who is his/her servant. A juror,

however, may waive the right to remain silent about the verdict of the jury at his/her own

peril in the hands of a disgruntled party. The best thing to do, really, is to remain silent

for his/her own protection and the protection of his/her family members or close friends.

In democracy, the buck stops with the people.

The finding of facts by the jury is not appealable or not subject of a review. The

reason for this is that in the course of the testimony of a witness, there are facts that are

revealed by the witness that cannot be recorded by the court stenographer in the form

of body language or demeanor, lip or eye movements, and facial expressions that often

signify whether the witness is telling the truth or not. These facts cannot be found in the

transcript and appellate judges have no means to speculate on them.

Only errors of law can be the basis of an appeal in a jury verdict.

A Jury is Often Blamed for Errors of Law.

Who Gives the Erroneous Law to the Jury in the First Place?


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Often times, juries are easily blamed for their alleged errors in law in deciding a

case because they are so-called legal ignoramuses. What the critic do not realize is that

the jurors merely apply the law that they have been instructed to apply. Jurors are not

allowed to change the law that was instructed to them to use for the case at hand. And

in the course of the jury trial, the evidence presented to them, sometimes, is not the

proper evidence applicable to the case.

The basic rule in jury trials is that the jury is the principal finder of facts and it has

the obligation to fit the evidence with, or into, the law. If the facts do not fit, the jury must

acquit (O.J. Simpson jury trial). If the jury is not provided with the proper law by the

judge or of the proper evidence by the trial lawyers,WHOSE FAULT IS IT? Not the jury

or jurors. The fault rests with the presiding judge who instructed them the law for use at

the trial. If a wrong or faulty evidence was shown to the jury, it will not be the jurys fault

but by the trial lawyers fault who introduced the wrong evidence.

The Jury System is the Only Way to Go To Stop or

Diminish Government Graft and Human Rights Abuses

If the people of the Philippines will ever hope to have a clean, efficient and decent

government, a government that will be loved by the people - by Muslims and Christians

alike similar to how Muslims and Christians love their government in the U.S., (except

followers of al-Bin Ladin, of course) - it is strongly recommended that the Majority Group,

people in the private sector, must take control, or at least make itself a partner in, the

administration of justice with the Minority Group, as discussed above.

The leaders in the private sector, i.e., private practicing attorneys, the members

of the CBCP and other ecclesiastical organizations, must sponsor the Peoples Jury

Initiative for the enactment of the proposed Jury Systems Law. You may start with just


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5 people that will serve as a think tank group among your close associates and thereafter

fan out to reach out others that will execute the other various activities in the Initiative

Process.

Establishing the Jury System is the Formula

for Unity of the People that will Solve the

Muslim Secession Movement

Another dividend in setting up the grand jury and trial jury systems is that it will

unify the Filipino people and solve the Muslim secession movement in Mindanao. When

people troop to the courts all over the country five days a week, 52 weeks a year, and sit

together side by side regardless of their creed, color, gender, language, rich or poor, in

their halls of justice to support, uphold the good side of the law and enforce the rule of law

against an outlaw, scofflaw, a grafter, land grabber, human rights abuser, a kidnapper,

or murderer, such an act by the people is indeed UNITY IN ACTION BY THE PEOPLE

judicially behind their laws. These juries will further stop slavery, a common but

unpublished social malady, by the rich over the poor in our country and very rampant

most specially in Muslim communities between their royal blooded leaders and

their common sakops.

The Jury System of Justice Is the Binding Spirit

Behind the Unity of the American People.

The jury system is in fact the formula behind the unity of the American people and

their states in the United States that has kept them as a united country for over 200 years

now, a tract record of unity no nation on earth can surpass in modern history. It is through

the jury system in the United States that prevents any body from claiming power above

the law because the rule of law belongs to the American ordinary people in their halls of

justice and not by their politicians in their private offices. When they are summoned to


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appear in court to serve their jury duty, it is a call TO PEACEFULLY UNITE IN JUSTICE

AND IN PEACE.

Have you heard of a Muslim faction fighting with Armalite AK47 another Muslim

faction in the hills and ambuscades in the U.S., or against Christians? Have you heard

of any secession movement by Muslims in the U.S. from the Federal or State

governments to create a Bangsamoro in the U.S.? Have you heard in the U.S. of political

candidates shooting each other with hand guns and hand grenades to win in elections

in spite of the fact that every citizen in said country has the right to bear arms

constitutionally without securing a permit from his government?

It is ironic in the Philippines where many are killed with firearms when one is not

supposed to possess a gun unless he gets first a government permit. I have lived in the

U.S. for over 43 years now and I have never heard yet of the kind of conflict imagined

above. I can only conclude that the rule of law in the U.S. prevails over the matigas is

because the people in the private sector, the U.S. Majority Group, have the majority rule

in Justice which they do it in style with their jury systems in their halls of justice and not

with public demonstrations in dusty boulevards around the country.

Church Support in Setting Up Jury Systems

Is Not a Violation of the Doctrine of

Separation of Church and State

Perhaps, there is some reluctance on the part of some church authorities,

specially among the members and officers of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the

Philippines (CBCP), to support the setting up of the jury systems for fear that it may

violate the doctrine of separation of church and state. However, parallel synergies

have already been established without question in which the church had been helping the

government in such areas as: educating the people by setting up private schools; building

housing facilities for the poor like what the late Archbishop Gerard Mongeau did in

Cotabato City; also in building hospitals for the sick and tired [about corrupt government

officials(?)]; or in helping the people and government in building a bridge across a wide

river to enable everyone to pass through.


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Should the church authorities assist in gathering signatures of the people to

support the petition to create the jury systems by the peoples initiative process, their

leaders or members will not intellectually be the same elements that will run the jury

systems in their regular and intended functions. It will be the public, the sovereign people

in the private sector, (not the pastors or priests) that will be making decisions for the

functioning of the juries. It will be the authorities of the Judicial Branch of the Government

(not the bishops or archbishop, or imam or rabbi of any religion) that will be supervising

the people who will serve for jury duty. None of the church leaders will have a supervisory

role in the operation of the jury systems. The principle behind is no different from church

assistance in building a bridge for use by the public.

If the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines is truly desirous to know the

truth behind the current alleged humongous anomalies and plunder of government funds

(like the plunder of fertilizer funds during the 2004 presidential election), as well as the

responsible characters in human rights violations such as kidnappings, murders, and

abduction of witnesses, it would indeed be prudent for the CBCP to embark in helping to

set up the most reliable sovereign ultimate device or facility, the jury systems, as a means

by which the people themselves can independently ensure in seeking the truth behind the

said anomalies and atrocities.

Why the Jury Systems of the U.S.

Is Most Appropriate for the Filipino People?

There is a necessity of copying the concept of the U.S. Jury Systems because

Philippine democracy is uniquely cloned after U.S. democracy.

The U.S. is the only country in the world wherein its people could enjoy more types

of freedom and liberty and the Philippines is the only country that abundantly bestows

those same types of freedom and liberty for its people. In order to avoid those freedoms

and liberties from being abused in the hands of powerful and high government officials,


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the American people found it fitting in setting up their Grand Jury system.

What is a Grand Jury

The U.S. Grand Jury System is the means by which the American people prevent

their public officials from acting like corporate owners of governmental powers specially

in handling public funds and in managing their armed services. It is through the Grand

Jury that the American people maintain their sovereign authority over their public

servants. The Grand Jury as well as the Trial Jury are likewise the devices the common

Filipino people must have to keep their sovereign authority over their public servants at

all times - not only during election time.

This is the reason why we likewise need the unique US-type jury system in the

Philippines that includes the Grand Jury - not the government controlled Canadian,

Australian, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese or Russian type of jury systems.

No ultra honest President alone can ever prevent

government graft and human rights abuses even

if such president will declare martial law.

To think that it is the sole responsibility of the President to run this country in order

to totally free his government from graft and corruption, that would be an impossible task

to accomplish. If a President who sleeps with his or her spouse every night (hopefully)

cannot control her or him from engaging in extra-corrupt activities, how much more can

he or she succeed in controlling the anomalous activities by all corrupt public officials and

employees outside the walls of his or her bedroom or office or beyond the periphery of

his or her vision 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year ALL OVER THE COUNTRY? Its just

practically impossible.

The Filipino People are not yet prepared to partake in this proposed

U.S. type Jury Systems because our level of education is

very low compared to the American People.

The above above reasoning is usually advanced by greedy public officials and

other community wealth predators who want to maintain the current government


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monopolized system of justice for their enrichment. In the first place, the low level of

education of the people has been caused by the very limited government budget for the

education of the people at the instance of greedy politicians in Congress and the

President, specially the ultra-corrupts. When funds are budgeted, they are in turn

pocketed by some, if not all, high education corrupt officials. Lawmakers have given more

budgetary priority to their pork barrels and intelligence funds for their personal enrichment

instead of providing adequate funding for the education of the people. This is a game

of catch 22". The more the common people become uneducated, the more the said

venerable educated crooks will be able to amass more wealth for themselves without

molestations from the people by depriving the people from establishing the jury system.

All the more, it has become imperative that the jury system has to be adopted to

enable the people with their decisions in justice to send all grafters to prison. With less

infestation of grafters in the government, more public funds will be conserved to increase

funding for the education of the people that will eventually raise their level education. The

jury system is the means by which the people get formal education of their laws, to know

their laws, to apply their laws, and to get protection from their laws.

How to force a corrupt President to resign from

office for Government Corruption without

the need of public demonstrations.

Those who wish the forced resignation of corrupt presidents (like the American

people did with U.S. President Nixon) should first endeavour to sponsor to enact the

Jury Initiative Law. Can the President of the Philippines be indicted for committing a

serious crime? DEFINITELY YES. There is no provision in the constitution to immunize

a criminal president, aka: a graft and money launderer president, among others. There

is, however, a self-serving doctrine that was hatched be ex-president Ferdinand Marcos

to prevent criminal accusation against him and it is being preserved by each of his

successors until today. This doctrine can be ignored if we enact the Jury Law.

Without such law in the Philippines, a presidential crook will only be laughing at

you, or such president can send you to jail for maligning his or her good(?) name, and


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you could surely land in jail because a president has all types of secret powers to

monopolize, manipulate and control justice in his or her favor. By just a cellphone order

away, a president can secretly instruct his or her appointed prosecutors, judges or

justices to indict and convict you on a trump up case as he or she wishes, like many think

why Joseph Estrada was convicted, and all you can hope for is ask for pardon. You end

up like a beggar of justice instead.

If we legislate the Jury Systems Law, the Grand Jury that will be set up in said

proposed legislation can indict a presidential crook for Obstruction of Justice if such a

president tries to influence judges or prosecutors for presidential protection from criminal

indictment.

The Ineffective and Bad Solutions to

Graft and Human Rights Abuses

Anti-graft actions by means of violent public demonstrations, widespread strikes

from normal activities including proposed amendments to the constitution to give more

power to politicians are the most discredited, feeble minded, unreliable and inutile means

to remove government grafters. The members of the Minority Group merely looked upon

the participants in such demonstrations with no respect at all and treat them like pigs to

be hosed down with water canons by official body guards, a notorious insult to the

Majority Group in our Philippine democracy.

Adoption of the jury system will boost the skills of barrio lawyers who had no

opportunity to be students of urban and metropolitan professor judges and justices. Well,

if you are a law practitioner and you have a good case, how much chance can you win

if your opponent was the favorite student of His Honor and you were not, in his court

room? As a barrio lawyer, you are just like a second class citizen lawyer. How many

barrio lawyers do you think have suffered from this judicial discrimination?


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The Primary Responsibility to Prevent Graft and Human

Rights Abuses Rests with the People In a Democracy

The leaders in the Majority Group should wake up and realize that its members are

the Masters over their public servants. In the natural order of things, it is usually the

master that has the primary power (and responsibility) to impose discipline over its

servants. If the Master will entrust that entire power to its Servant, the master becomes

slave of the Servant, which is what really is happening in the Philippines today - the

Majority is treated like pigs by the Minority.

Unfortunately since the inception of the Philippine Republic up to the current date,

all that the leaders in the Majority Group have been doing was to lead its members to beg

from, instead of imposing upon, their public servants the desired discipline and justice in

the enforcement of the rule of law in this country..

We, the Majority Group and our very sleepy civic leaders in the private sector,

have naively consented, in fact, to government corruption by our own negligence in failing

to find the means to enforce the sovereign powers of our group members. Most of us

really DO NOT KNOW Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution, the very leading provision

in the constitution that the sovereign power belongs to us common citizens in whom the

sovereign majority rule is vested and all government authority comes from.

The reason public servants can freely enrich themselves in office is because most

of our civic leaders in the private sector are not aware of the tremendous sovereign

power in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the Majority Group they are leading

and for failing to use the opportunities of Republic Act 6735, the Peoples Initiative Law.

Calling on the true anti-graft crusaders and

fighters for Justice to set up the Jury Systems

Perhaps, there are still remaining sincere and honest civic leaders in the Majority

Group or Private Sector that can take up the courage to harness the power of its


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constituency like you who may be reading this article. We should realize by now that the

reason, or the basic cause, why corruption among public officials that infest the

government is growing in number is due to the unfair undemocratic fundamental

set up of the Philippine justice system in the exclusive hands of powerfulcorrupt public officials. It is inherently flawed and discriminatory. It is the

worst and most notorious monopoly that ever existed in this land.

Philippine Justice today is a justice system wherein powerful public officials

can freely command their appointed prosecutors and judges to make a wrong into

a right in their favor to swell their personal bank accounts and perpetual usurpation

of public office while we, in the Majority Group, can only look on helplessly because

of our inexcusable ignorance of not knowing our rights and power. We in the Majority

Group must not expect that the Minority will give up said monopoly in a silver platter. It is

nothing but wishful thinking on the part of the leaders and members of the Majority. The

Minority is not yet stupid enough to give away its golden bread and butter.

Government monopoly of justice is the invisible monster mother superior of all

evils in the government. Thismonster imperatively needs to be taken out without anyminute longer. With the Majority Group being the sovereign, we can enable it, befitting of its

status as Master of Society, to create the proper device - the Jury Systems - through the

Peoples Jury Initiative process to give the people a commanding deciding voice in justice.

By the Jury System, if adopted, we can break the political bondage of Justices,

Judges, and Prosecutors, from the politicians that helped them get their appointments in the

bench and other public offices.

Marlowe Camello, Email: [email protected]

Copy Right 2016 by Marlowe Camello
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

why we must adopt the jury system

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