Peace Through Justice*

by Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno Supreme Court

At the outset, I wish to thank the Gerry Roxas Foundation for giving me the privilege of addressing the peace and justice advocates who are heroically assisting the marginalized members of our community in attaining justice through the Barangay Justice Service System (BJSS). I also take this opportunity to thank USAID for tirelessly supporting projects like the BJSS as well as the numerous judicial reform projects of the Supreme Court, particularly its component of Access to Justice by the Poor. You continue to be one of our relentless partners in injecting flesh and blood to our peoples vision of justice -- undifferentiated justice to the prince and pauper alike. There are many definitions of peace due to the different values ascribed to the term by varying cultures and political currents. The absence of war or absentia belli, however, is the least common denominator among the varied definitions.1 This is not surprising, as both the word peace, or pax, and its most commonly accepted definition are literal translations from the Latin version introduced by the ancient Romans during the Pax Romana which, incidentally, is a misnomer, as the Roman Empire still carried out the conquests of Britannia and Dacia, among others, during this period of socalled Roman Peace.

Keynote address delivered on the first day of the 2nd Barangay Justice Advocates Congress on December 3, 2007, at the Grand Men Seng Hotel, Davao City.
Hkan Wiberg, Peace Research: Past, Present, Future (2005).

2 In modern times, Johan Galtung, one of the founders and key figures of peace research, introduced the terms negative peace and positive peace. These do not mean bad and good peace, for as Benjamin Franklin said, There is no such thing as a good war and there is no such thing as a bad peace. These terms refer to the traditionally negatively defined peace as the absence of direct violence, such as war, terrorism and crime; and a positively defined peace, involving the integration of society to eliminate structural or indirect violence, such as poverty, hunger, discrimination, and social injustice.2 How our society looks at peace is determinative of how we will act to address the types of violence we must overcome to achieve it. We are fortunate that our culture is known for its values of pakikisama (i.e., cooperation) and pakikipagkapwa tao (sympathy), virtues that express the sense of maintaining smooth interpersonal relationships and preserving harmony within the community and ones own family.3 It is for this reason that, historically, Filipinos prefer settling conflicts amicably and with peace prevailing among the parties. Early Spanish

writers, such as Fr. Juan de Placencia, tell us of how pre-Spanish Filipinos peacefully settled conflicts within the community before the datu or a group of elders of the balanghay to which the parties belonged. Following presentday conciliation techniques, the datu would immediately summon the parties

2 3

Baljit Grewal, Positive and Negative Peace (2003). Ronald E. Dolan, ed. Philippines: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress (1991).

3 concerned whenever a complaint was made, in order to settle the conflict as amicably and as quickly as possible. On the other hand, cases of inter-barangay conflict were resolved through arbitration, in which a board of elders from neutral barangays would act as arbiter.4 Every effort would be exerted to accomplish the cordial resolution of conflicts before discord could turn into violence, which would admittedly be disastrous especially within small communities composed of some 35-40 persons each. The practice of amicably settling disputes continued during Spanish times, albeit to a more limited extent, with regard to family-based disputes before the Cabeza de Barangay who acted as the datu. The barangay system went into disuse with the advent of the American adversarial system of justice. In 1978, the Barangay Justice System was revived by former President Ferdinand E. Marcos who issued Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1508, entitled Establishing a System of Amicably Settling Disputes at the Barangay Level. The Katarungang Pambarangay Law, as PD 1508 is called, was enacted in official recognition of the time-honored tradition of amicably settling disputes among family and barangay members at the barangay level, without having to resort to adversarial means. It was

created with the noble intention of promoting the speedy administration of justice and implementing the constitutional mandate to preserve and develop Filipino culture and strengthen the family as a basic social institution. This is the historical matrix of the Local Government Code of 1991, which laid
4

Teodoro A. Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People (1960).

4 down the more complete structure of the barangays, as the basic units of our government. From the judicial lens, it is obvious to the eye that the Barangay Justice System plays a vital role in addressing the weaknesses of our adversarial system of dispute resolution. It is familiar learning that the adversarial system of justice came from our American colonizers. More than a century after it was put into place in our legal landscape, the question lingers about its effectiveness in the light of our distinct custom and culture as a people. Scholars, for instance, point out that the adversarial system is based on a culture of combat, which is not attuned to our culture of conciliation. The adversarial system is run by complicated, technical rules that give parties who can pay high-priced lawyers great advantage over parties who cannot afford them. The result is a tilted playing field, where the poor get less effective legal representation. Indeed, the adversarial

system has been denounced as a system in which, often, facts cannot be distilled from falsehoods. A system of justice in which one can only

perceive the appearance of truth, but not truth itself, leaves much to be desired. For these reasons, the judiciary has taken numerous measures to address this flaw. Court-annexed mediation is one of the more successful ones. Since 2004, out of the 67,232 cases referred under the system, 38,916 went through the mediation process and 27,094 have successfully been resolved by 113 mediation centers spread in 11 judicial regions, under the supervision of the Philippine Judicial Academy. This notable success-rate of

5 70% has directly contributed to a 2% decrease each year in the total number of cases pending before the courts. There is, however, no substitute for the Barangay System of Justice. Because of the grassroots environment, wherein the Barangay System of Justice is situated, it is in the optimal position to address family- and community-based conflicts. It also provides the most immediately

accessible form of justice for the marginalized members of our society. More often than not, the justice our poor people get from the barangays will be the only kind of justice they will receive in their lifetime. It is thus crucial that they get fair and fast justice. The important role that the barangay plays in affording access to justice to the marginalized is reflected in many of our laws. Let me cite but a few. Barangay councils for the protection of children were constituted under P.D. No. 603, the Child and Youth Welfare Code. The role of these barangay councils in protecting and assisting abandoned or maltreated children and dependents, as well as taking steps to prevent juvenile delinquency, cannot be overstated. Under Republic Act (RA) No. 7610, the barangay chair is authorized to file complaints on unlawful acts committed in violation of this law, entitled The Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act. Under RA No. 9262, the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004, the Punong Barangay or Kagawad is given the power to issue Barangay Protection Orders (BPOs) to prevent

6 further acts of violence against a woman or her child. A wide-angle view of the barangays will therefore show the expanding role of our barangay officials in our delivery of justice. Like Congress, the judiciary has likewise emphasized the important role the barangays play in the administration of justice. In 1993, my

predecessor, Chief Justice Andres R. Narvasa, issued Administrative Circular No. 14-93, instructing all Regional Trial Courts, Metropolitan Trial Courts, Municipal Trial Courts, and Municipal Circuit Trial Courts to desist from entertaining suits filed without first complying with conciliation proceedings before the barangay, when so required, to ensure that the aims of the Revised Katarungang Pambarangay Law are not undermined. These conciliation proceedings have a high success rate. Without them, the overflow of cases in our courts would have been worse. The success of the Barangay Justice System ultimately lies in the hands of those who empower the parties with the knowledge required to resolve conflict in the manner that accords with our culture and tradition. Volunteers such as you make this possible. You fulfill the multifaceted role of advocate and adviser by educating and advising parties as to their rights and remedies. Unless litigants are aware of their rights and remedies under the law, they will never appreciate the blessings of our justice system. The best justice system cannot succeed when its features cannot be understood by ignorant litigants.

7 Your invaluable contribution in bringing immediate redress to community-based grievances is validated by statistics. The 3,470

community disputes you resolved between 2005 and 2006 are 3,470 less cases that would have further overburdened our courts. Without your help, these cases would probably remain unresolved, considering the possibility that they may reach the highest court of the land. Indeed, ours is probably the only system of justice in the world in which even garden-variety cases go all the way up to the Supreme Court. In fine, our barangay system of justice is one effective instrument for fighting the evil of delay in our justice system. This is not a tiny evil. Studies show that one big reason why the poor avoid going to courts is their fear that they cannot survive the slow grind of justice. I agree with Rev. Martin Luther King, who said that without justice, there can be no peace. Justice and peace continue to be among the more pressing of our problems. We dont have to be omniscient to say that we need to capture soonest the elusive solution to this problem of bringing to our people equal justice to all and enduring peace in their lives. They who work so that justice and pace will prevail in our land, work without weary, and work without the blare of trumpets deserve our deepest gratitude. In this light I would like to thank the Gerry Roxas Foundation, USAID, and all the barangay justice advocates under the BJSS for bringing justice and peace to the 1,306 barangays spread across 91 municipalities in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Central Mindanao. By affording justice to the community, particularly the

8 marginalized, our conflicts will be peaceably solved before they deteriorate into structural violence. Your efforts give hope to our people that they are nearer to the Promised Land, nearer than ever before. A pleasant and harmonious day to all.