Maladministration of Justice

The courts of justice in the Philippines during Rizal’s time were notoriously corrupt. They were courts of “injustice”, as far as Filipinos were concerned. The Spanish judges, fiscals (prosecuting attorneys) and other court officials were inept, venal and often times ignorant of law.

To the Filipino masses, a ligitation in a court was a calamity. The expenses incurred even in a simple lawsuit often exceeded the value of the property at issue, so that in many instances the letigance found themselves impoverished at the end of the long tussle. Criminal cases dragged on for many years during which period either the delinquents took to flight, or the documents were lost.

"Justice delayed

is

justice Denied"

Even when the question at issue was supposed to be settled, a defect in the sentence could always be concocted to reopen the whole affair. If the case had been tried and judgment given under the civil code, away was found to convert it into a criminal code, a flaw could be discovered under the laws of the indies, or the city partidas or the Roman Law, or the Novisima Recopilacion, or the Antigous Fueros, Decrees, Royal Orders, Ordenzas del Buen Gobierno, and so forth, by which the case could be reopen.

A specific instance of Spanish maladministration of justice was the infamous case of Juan de la Cruz in 1886-1898. On the night of June 7,1886, two men were brutally killed in their sleep at the waterfront of Cavite. The next day a coxswain of a motor launch named Juan de la Cruz was arrested on mere suspicion of having perpetrated the murderer.