Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan on Sunday called for the swift passage of Senate Bill 1547 establishing a Justice Reform Commission, as public anger mounts over the government’s failure to jail officials linked to massive corruption scandals.
“Atat na atat na ang taumbayan para sa katarungan. Gusto nilang makulong ang mga may sala, hindi malaya at nagpapakasasa sa kinurakot (The people are crying out for justice. They want the corrupt behind bars, not enjoying their freedom and their stolen billions),” Pangilinan said, citing the multibillion-peso Flood Control Corruption Scandal, which exposed how stolen public funds and systemic failures in governance contributed to deadly flooding, destroyed homes, and ruined livelihoods.
Pangilinan, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, warned that the persistence of high-level corruption and the near-absence of convictions prove that “the justice system has collapsed for ordinary citizens, while working perfectly for the powerful.”
The proposed Commission will conduct a comprehensive investigation of all five pillars of the justice system: law enforcement, prosecution, the judiciary, the correctional system, and the community. It will identify why cases against public officials drag on, why backlogs multiply, and why accountability repeatedly fails.
Composed of members from both houses of Congress and experts from the private sector and academe, the body will have the authority to summon data and documents from the Department of Justice, Ombudsman, Philippine National Police, and Supreme Court; examine procedural inefficiencies; study barriers to justice for vulnerable sectors; and recommend fast, actionable reforms.
“We will root out why the country’s justice system has massively failed, why the guilty remain free, why cases are delayed to death, and why corruption thrives,” Pangilinan said.
“We must fix this system together as a nation, or watch public trust collapse even further,” he added.
The Commission will operate for three years with the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) as its research arm and will submit periodic reports and a comprehensive reform blueprint to Congress and Malacañang.