 |
| Print screen grab from Yahoo News (news.yahoo.com) |
Now, how is this related to Philippine law? The stunning quickness in the accusation, arrest and execution made me think about the concepts of due process and capital punishment in a democratic-republican state like the Philippines as compared to totalitarian regimes like North Korea. There are some similarities, and definitely, stark differences in the understanding and application of due process and capital punishment between the Philippines and North Korea.
In the Philippines, a person is accused of a serious crime by filing charges before a prosecutor who will determine if there is probable cause to elevate the charges before the court. The filing of the case before the prosecutor is done through a Complaint while the elevation of the charges in court is done through an Information. If convicted, the criminal can appeal his conviction to a higher court. In North Korea there is such a term as “anti-State crimes” which are treated as as political crimes. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_of_North_Korea) The State Security Department investigates and preliminarily examines this type of crimes. In the case of Jang Song Tahaek, he was tried before a special military tribunal which apparently zapped through the entire legal process in just a few days culminating to his execution. One can say that the process is more political than legal.
Capital punishment or the death penalty is another matter that distinguishes the Philippine legal system from the North Korean legal system. There is no more capital punishment in the Philippines after it was suspended by Republic Act No. 9346, which was approved on June 24, 2006. Life imprisonment and reclusion perpetua, a 30-year minimum) sentence replaced the death penalty. It goes to say therefore that there was death penalty in the Philippines. However, the death penalty was only imposed on so-called heinous crimes like kidnap-for-ransom, murder and rape. In North Korea, the death penalty by firing squad may be imposed on varied offenses such as grand theft, murder, rape, drug smuggling, treason, espionage, political dissidence, defection, piracy, consumption of media not approved by the government, and proselytizing religious ideals that contradict practiced Juche ideology. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_North_Korea) The Juche ideology is a political thesis formed by North Korea's founding father Kim Il-Sung that states that the masses of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are the masters of the country's development. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche)
To sum up, the North Korean criminal legal process conforms to political ideology over constitutionalism while the Philippine criminal legal process adheres to constitutionalism over political ideology.
Posts
