of the Philippines the criminal justice system is - Article 2

If after the lapse of six (6) months from the commission of the extrajudicial
killing of an activist or media personality the investigation by PNP has not
yielded any positive result, the police personnel in charge must request the
NBI to take over the investigation. For this purpose, the NBI must be provided
with the necessary funds and allowed to hire additional personnel if necessary.
C. Prosecution
To ensure that those responsible for the extrajudicial execution of activists
and media people are brought to justice and that the prosecution is handled
with efficiency and dispatch, the Department of Justice (DOJ) must create a
special team of competent and well-trained prosecutors to handle the trial of
said cases. Also, the DOJ should request the Supreme Court to designate special
courts to hear and try said cases and to require the courts so designated to give
the highest priority to them, conduct daily hearings, and resolve them within
six (6) months.
With respect to pending cases the prosecution of which has not been moving
for lack of judges or because of the fault or negligence of the public prosecutor,
the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor should make representations with the
Office of the Court Administrator to detail judges to the vacant salas, or to
designate special prosecutors to take over the prosecution, as the case may be.
As regards killings in areas where witnesses are afraid to testify because of
fear of reprisal, steps should be taken to transfer the venue to Manila.
D. Protection of witnesses
As part of the need to ensure the successful prosecution of those responsible
for extrajudicial killings, the present Witness Protection Program created under
Republic Act. No. 6981 should be enhanced and made more effective so as to
guarantee the safety of witnesses to the killings. The existing program is
suffering from lack of funds and necessary manpower. The Government must
give the highest priority to the improvement, strengthening, and funding of
said program, preferably patterned after the U.S. federal witness protection
program.
The program should also be made available to persons who have received
death threats or who are otherwise in danger of extralegal, arbitrary or
summary execution.
E. Special law for strict chain-of-command responsibility
The President should propose legislation to require police and military forces
and other government officials to maintain strict chain-of-command
responsibility with respect to extrajudicial killings and other offenses
committed by personnel under their command, control or authority. Such
legislation must deal specifically with extralegal, arbitrary, and summary
executions and forced “disappearances” and provide appropriate penalties
which take into account the gravity of the offense. It should penalize a superior
government official, military or otherwise, who encourages, incites, tolerates
or ignores, any extrajudicial killing committed by a subordinate. The failure
of such a government official to prevent an extrajudicial killing if he had a
reasonable opportunity to do so, or his failure to investigate and punish his
subordinate, or to otherwise take appropriate action to deter or prevent its
commission or punish his erring subordinate should be criminalized. Even
“general information” – e.g., media reports – which would place the superior
on notice of possible unlawful acts by his subordinate should be sufficient to
hold him criminally liable if he failed to investigate and punish his subordinate.
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article 2 • February 2007 Vol. 6, No. 1