Prosecutorial Practice: Bahala na si Judge

In February 2023, the Department of Justice under Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla issued a circular raising the standard of evidence before a case could be filed in court. No longer the lazy refuge of “probable cause.” Now, prosecutors were told to act only when there was a “reasonable certainty of conviction.”

It was a masterstroke. For decades, police and prosecutors had been playing a cruel game of hot potato with the lives of the accused. The police would arrest on the thinnest of suspicions, file a case casually like illegal gambling (tongits and cara y crus) and pass the mess to the prosecutor. The prosecutor, in turn, would shrug, affix a signature, and pass it along to the judge. “Bahala na ang judge.” The buck had been passed, but the accused had already been booked, locked up, and branded. Guilt or innocence was a technicality for later.

The result was predictable and disastrous. Aggressive policing, followed by equally aggressive prosecution, clogged the courts with cases that should never have seen the inside of a docket. People were jailed for first-time, petty offenses—sometimes for infractions that could have been settled with a warning or citation. Hearings were postponed again and again. Trial calendars bulged. And jails became warehouses of the unconvicted—festering with violence, disease, and death. Jail overcrowding squeezed out any hope of rehabilitation programs. Longer detention fed recidivism, and the public, ironically, felt less safe.

Secretary Boying Remulla’s circular promised to change that. It told prosecutors to throw out flimsy cases and to work closely with police in building airtight ones. If you file, you should win. If you can’t win, you shouldn’t file. No more treating pretrial detention as punishment. No more hiding behind the excuse that the courts will sort it out eventually.

Two and a half years later, however, we still have to see this fully implemented. Data on my research on the city jails in Metro Manila show that dismissal rates still hover around 30 percent. Conviction rates remain at 50–60 percent—propped up mostly ONLY by plea bargaining in drug cases. And in the cases that go to full trial without a plea deal, only 18 percent end in conviction.

Prosecutors I interviewed cite three reasons for the half-hearted implementation. First, they say it’s risky to dismiss cases outright; sometimes new evidence appears during trial. Second, they admit it’s hard to build strong cases: police work is often shoddy, forensic evidence scarce, and reliance on dubious witness testimony too high. They know some accused are factually guilty but can’t prove it in court—so they file anyway, letting the accused languish in detention as a kind of consolation prize to the victims. Third, they bristle at working closely with police during case build-up, claiming it compromises their quasi-judicial independence. In practice, this “independence” often means rubber-stamping whatever the police bring them.

So here we are: same aggressive policing, same aggressive prosecution, same overloaded courts, same overcrowded jails.

What’s needed is a jolt—a reminder that the circular is not a polite suggestion but a marching order. Prosecutors must rediscover prosecutorial discretion, not as a way to shrug off responsibility, but as a shield against abuse. They must check overzealous police work, flag faulty arrests, and help build cases that can stand in court. They must end the lazy culture of “file now, let the judge worry later.”

And the DOJ must track the national implementation of the circular. Audit the prosecutors. Ask why the old habits persist. Train both police and prosecutors to work as a team in gathering evidence, while respecting rights. Because as Remulla himself put it:

“Huwag nating hayaang gamitin ang kagawaran para mang-api ng ibang tao. Ang mga mahihirap ang nabibiktima dito sa mga mahihinang kaso… Kailangan nating itaas ang antas ng ebidensya sa prosecutor para wala nang makulong ng basta-basta.”

It’s a fine sentiment. And we need to do everything we can to achieve the Secretary Boying Remulla' visions.