Why The Filipino People Must Adopt the Jury Systems?

By: Atty. Marlowe Camello, Member: Philippines and California Bars

Homeland, California, USA
Email: mcamello@verizon.net
Updated, Aug 10, 2015
Brief, frank and direct answer to this title question: Because our Judiciary has
no 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 - wala kang paki sa hustisya sang-ayon sa mga abogado at
ng mga huwes dahil ikaw daw ay isang bobo 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 revolt with 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 officials 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

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 selfenrichment 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 Power in 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

Rules and Finances shall 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: Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates
from 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 government
which 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

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-inchief. 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 the unconstitutional government monopoly of justice with

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 who have less in life, must have more in
law.

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 the jury 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.

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:
Sovereignty resides in the People and all government authority emanates from
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 the Grand 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 law
and 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 USFJS itself 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 jury is the only anchor ever yet imagined by man that can hold
a government to the principles of its constitution.

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 prevent
government 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 powerful

corrupt 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. This monster imperatively needs to be taken out without any
minute 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: mcamello@verizon.net

Copy Right 2016 by Marlowe Camello

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