P-NOY SAYS JUDGE WHO FREED GLORIA WANTED IMPOSSIBLE PROOF!

P-NOY SAYS JUDGE WHO FREED GLORIA WANTED IMPOSSIBLE PROOF!

Judge Jesus Mupas, the judge of the Regional Trial Court of Pasay, Branch 112, who issued the order allowing Gloria Arroyo to post a bail of P1 million is in the hot spot.

Judge Jesus B. Mupas

This circumstance bolster the advocacy for the jury trial in the Philippines, where representatives of the people chosen from them by raffle and further screening to ensure the fairest minds available are only those that will be chosen.

Hukuman ng Mamamayan Movement Inc. (HMMI) is one advocate for the establishment of the jury trial where the people through their representatives are the ones exercising the power to judge instead of the single judge like Judge Mupas determining the fate of the case and the fate of the accused.

HMMI president Berteni "Toto" Cataluña Causing says that this justice system is the only best medicine for all the ills in the government and in the society.  Causing argued that this is because of the fact that jury system is naturally the most difficult to influence.  And if it cannot be bought or coerced by vice lords and arrogant rich then the dirty rich persons, including the bad police officers and gambling lords, will be compelled to behave.  If there is a very high assurance of punishments, the murderers and thieves of government funds will think 1,000 times before committing the crimes they premeditate.

Causing said the Filipinos are capable of adopting jury trials as proven by the ability of the people in making their own judgments in the recent Impeachment Trial of Renato Corona.  In many surveys, massive responses came from the people and they all have reasons to justify their vote for conviction of the former Chief Justice.

"Minus the talking senators, the impeachment trial was in essence a jury trial," Causing said.

"Until we change the present single-judge system, stories of injustice will never end in the Philippines," Causing insisted.

President P-Noy calls the judge's reason in allowing bail as "impossible."

To understand what the President meant, let this illustration be seen: 

1. In a rape case, in almost all cases there are no witnesses except for the rapist and the raped.  If you were a judge, can you still demand a third witness in rape to corroborate or support the testimonies of the rape victim? Of course you cannot because the crime was committed with no other persons present but the rape victim and rapist.  If you were a judge who will demand from the prosecution to present one more witness to corroborate the story of the rape victim, that is "impossible" to happen.

2. In the case of Gloria, the issue at issue is the allegation of witness Norie Unas that there were three of them--Norie Unas, Gloria Arroyo and Andal Ampatuan Sr.--in one instance when he said Gloria instructed Andal to ensure a 12-0 win for Team Unity in Maguindanao during the 2007 elections.  There was no fourth person, so that it was impossible for Judge Jesus Mupas to look for another person to corroborate the statements of Norie Unas.

Thus, the statements below reported to be coming from President P-Noy:

“Based on my understanding, Judge Mupas said there was no corroborative testimony in his decision to grant the bail petition. But if we can recall the accusation, there were only three persons talking – Mrs. Arroyo, (former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Sr.) Ampatuan, and (former Maguindanao administrator Norie) Unas who was listening,” the President said.

“Are we to think that they (Arroyo and Ampatuan) will give damaging testimonies against each other? So there can really be only one witness (Unas). How can we have corroborative testimony?”

“The test (being used by Mupas) is a bit too high which makes it almost impossible to attain because no one else heard the conversation on the issue of electoral fraud,” Aquino added.