By: Norberto Betita
In the world today there had been millions and millions of laws enacted as touching the ten commandments of God. Even the four word command “Thou shalt not kill” has continued to stimulate and arouse the faculties of hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of brilliant minds to debate and create laws purposely to decipher and decode its meaning. Hence, for already such a long time, our halls of justice no longer transmit its intended title, because it has since become courts of law and a public square for brilliant debates of opposing thinkers and law experts from both sides of a conflicting social interest. By my generic understanding, judges sit as an arbiter, the authority upon which decisions are seriously weighed and cautiously made as to serve the call for justice, in accordance with the merits of the evidences and arguments, the rule of law, and after a very conscientious study of applicable laws and Supreme Court decisions based on constitutional mandates as are available and carefully presented. These the judges do for they know that their decisions are subject for review. However, many times they are being misunderstood by the fibs that are being feed in the public’s mind by no less than their subjects for judgment. It is even sad to note that some of the accused, especially heightened criminals, in their insatiable desire to win their cases and avoid incarceration, make their own interpretation of the law and justify their predatory instinct which sometimes results to the killing of a judge. This may have prompted an unknown author to say, “The trouble with the laws these days is that criminals know their rights better than their wrongs.”
Some news headlines continue to echo such grim reminder of the unwanted fate of some of our court judges. These few headlines resonate this forbidding reality---Pangasinan judge died in ambush; Judge handling PIATCO case murdered; RTC judge shot dead on way to court in Baler; Judge shot dead in Bulacan. These may have been only a few, but recently we again have one amongst our roster of judges, although already retired, unreasonably and cold-bloodedly killed in Surigao City while humbly wanting a simple meal for lunch in a poor man’s eatery.
During the incumbency of Honorable Judge Victor Canoy, I often saw his car passed by our home, while a bodyguard in motorcycle tailed in a short distance. He lives just about a hundred meters away from my abode. The two-bedroom house he rented was one among the original dwellings built as a low-cost housing for rank and file government employees. Until now, that low cost house which bedroom measures only 9 square meters, barely enough to accommodate a matrimonial bed, doesn’t show any major improvement as to enhance any desirable comfort that is respectably fitting for a prominent man as an honorable judge and his wife. His kind of life lead my mind somehow to wonder why he lived that long in a crowded dwelling worthy only for the common man, that even his car almost could not fit in. His most humble preference to live in a poor man’s house and his choice of a place to satisfy his want of bread on that ill-fated day when he was murdered in cold blood was such a glaring representation of prominence in lowly apparel.
I am not in any way aware of how much a judge gets for a monthly salary. While I thought that it must have been sufficiently equivalent to such a position of prominence and the high risk that they are exposed to each day as may be evidenced by a need for a bodyguard, yet I am inquisitively snooping at the simplicity of the temporal life of our judges as it was with Judge Canoy. My memory remits a very humble life of a Municipal Judge in our old neighborhood whom I often observed while I was yet in my youth, during his off duty and holidays towing a sow while piglets followed on the street immediately in front of our cottage. Perhaps my late prominent lawyer friend is right when he related to me an offer for him to become a presiding judge, but which he refused for reason of salary, which to him was much lesser than what he earns as a practicing lawyer. If this be the case and the life threats for judges and criminality increases, as again proven by the shooting of a government prosecutor a week immediately after the brutal killing of Judge Canoy, our government and society may one day end up wanting for judges and no lawyers will respond.
I know Judge Canoy early in my college days. He has a voice that touches hearts. He was the judge when I won second in an oratorical contest. His younger sister is a college classmate and a close friend of my wife. His eldest son is an acquaintance of my eldest daughter and his only daughter is a schoolmate of my second daughter. He might not have known me, but I know him as a prominent lawyer and judge. His family life had shown no elaborate demonstration of elevated social distinction. Neither his wife nor children have raised brows of arrogance and conceit. His sending his only daughter in a public high school, while most of his colleagues in the law profession have their children enrolled in expensive private schools, is reflective of his inherent humility and frugality in life.
A fellow church member described him as a singing judge, an active member of the United Church Men of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Surigao City. He conducts the men’s choir. He had been a council chairman and during his tenure, he had introduced projects that were beneficial to the church and its members. He had been an exemplary and respected member of the UCCP.
As I reflected on the circumstances of that tragic event, when he walked alone as a retired judge, empty handed and in humblest of attire, notwithstanding existing life threats, I kind of hear the echo of Paul’s words in him: “…I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day…(2 Timothy 4:6-8).”
As we again witness the killing of a judge, we might raise the same universal question long framed by Job of old, “If a man die shall he live again?” The Apostle Paul did ask likewise, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory (1 Corinthians 15:55)?” No greater words were ever spoken than those of the angel standing before the empty tomb that first resurrection morn—“Why seek ye the living among the dead (Luke 24:5)?” “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said (Matthew 28:6).” Indeed, "death is not the end; it is putting out the candle because the dawn has come (Thomas S. Monson).”
Tomorrow, his body will be laid to rest and make the grave its mansion, while his spirit lives to sojourn in the world of waiting spirits until the resurrection day. He died a murderous death, but his blood cries vengeance from the ground which only God can repay.
May our Police force finds immediate resolve to this merciless killing that justice may be kept alive in our society.
To the bereaved family I express my deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences.
