Subjected to trial by publicity

Batas Mauricio .

ACCORDING to recent news reports coming out in local newspapers, man’s life expectancy–or the life span an ordinary man or woman is expected to live today–has now reached 72 years. In the same breath, the same reports are saying that women now have longer life spans than most men. Yes, I agree, these are good news to many, but if we seriously think about it, nothing is really new.

First, the Bible, in its Psalms 90:10, already clarified even some thousand years or so before Jesus came to the world that man’s life may come to 70 years, or 80, if his strength and, of course, good health, endure. On women living much longer than many men, science has a solid explanation for it, even from long ago: women do not abuse their bodies with vices like drinking, smoking, or other vile substances, like men are won’t to do, so better health is enjoyed by them in the long run.

Be that as it may, what people should try to understand more urgently are reminders from the Bible about good health and long life. First, in 1 Timothy 4, we are told that while physical exercise has some benefit, training on spirituality and holiness as espoused by the Bible would be more beneficial for any man. Second, in 1 Corinthians 11, it is there stated that better health and more vigorous strength come to those who remember the body and blood of Jesus, every time they eat and drink.

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I am a voter in the First District of Tarlac, my home province. I am registered in one of the polling precincts in the first district town of Ramos, and I diligently go home to that town every election time to cast my vote. This is the reason why I am interested to see how the problem now hounding Marty Torralba, a lawyer vying to become a board member of my district, will be resolved.

News reports say that Torralba slapped an election officer in Camiling, Tarlac, on the face, because the officer allegedly took down the posters of the lawyer which were hung by his supporters in places not designated as common poster areas. Commissioner Rowena “Bing” Guanzon of the Commission on Elections immediately castigated Torralba, and ordered the filing criminal and disbarment charges against him.

I urge caution here. The processes laid down by the law have to be observed at all cost, avoiding resort to media, in solving this problem. The truth must be made to come out, solely on the basis of evidence fully acceptable to the courts. Unfortunately, however, in the Philippines, we have become accustomed to trial by publicity—or the trial of cases in newspapers, on radio and television, and even online through social media.

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This is exactly what is happening now between the Public Attorneys’ Office (PAO) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). They are furiously lambasting one another, through media releases, on the issue of the teen-aged girl who was found dead with the skin on her left face lopped off in Cebu City. PAO said the girl was raped. The PNP said she was not sexually violated.

Could it not have been better if the PAO and the PNP tried to call each other first and privately discussed the differences in their findings? They are both agencies of government, so it was incumbent upon them to have exerted their utmost to cooperate with one another, so they could arrive at a common truth about the crime. As it is however, with their very public discourse in media, the search for truth has become more elusive.

It is even becoming clearer now that the teen-aged victim in Cebu City who was brutally killed and whose left face was mutilated mercilessly is fast turning out to be a victim of yet another, perchance more gruesome, crime–that of being unable to obtain justice for her plight, simply because the PAO and the PNP are destroying her case with their conflicting media statements. What is happening to the PAO and the PNP? Why are they bent on trying to discredit one another? If I were the president, I will fire their heads, pronto!

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com