BAGUIO CITY – In this age of fast-paced technology, the traditional ways of doing things must not be forgotten.
This was emphasized by Municipal Trial Court in Cities – Baguio City executive judge Glenda Ortiz-Soriano during the flag-raising ceremonies at city hall before officials and employees led by Congressman Mark Go, Mayor Mauricio Domogan and vice-mayor Edison Bilog.
“These days, when there is instant gratification in everything that we do, when everything can be achieved with a touch of a button, there is a waning respect for the process … an obvious lack of tolerance for the old school,” she said.
Soriano pointed out that even the wheels of justice are not spared this digitized world and claimed that as people move on with advancing technology, “there is a growing disdain for the paper and more and more reliance on the screen.”
“Gone are the days when thoughts are simply put on paper and written by hand and with ink. Winnings rendered on paper are sometimes relegated as mere ‘paper victories’. But that should not be. Not all paper victories are empty and for naught. These are tangible evidence of rights, and rights, to be enforced, go through a rigorous process – whether in or out of court, we speak of due process,” she said.
Soriano explained that due process evades a precise definition where the Constitution “simply expounds such concept with the guarantee that no man shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The purpose of the guaranty is to prevent arbitrary encroachment against the life, liberty and property of individuals.”
She added that the due process guaranty serves as a protection against arbitrary regulation or seizure and it speaks often times of a long and tedious process of notice, of the opportunity to be heard, of establishing the ground prior to any deprivation or regulation of rights.
“Because of our desire for instant gratification and results, most of the time in our myopic sights, we skim through the means and simply put our focus on the ends. But again, most of the time, we find that at the end of the day, it is the battles that are valiantly fought till the end that are the sweetest of victories and not all paper victories are empty and meaningless,” Soriano said.
She cited the copies of city council ordinances the MTCC has received where in the few pages of paper containing policies and regulations “sometimes do not do true justice to the process it has gone through to be passed, to the meaningful deliberations to determine and establish our people’s needs and ascertain the most efficient policy to respond to them. It will not also sum up all that the parties need to do to establish a right based on these ordinances,” she added.
“If only for that, we should have greater respect for the paper and the commendable process it has gone through,” Soriano said./Gaby Keith#
