An Evaluation of the Victims’ Compensation Program (R.A. 7309)

Abstract

“Justice delayed is justice denied. ” This statement indeed holds true for individuals whose cases are still pending in courts. Since the hands of justice move slowly while the hands of time run quickly, the misery of those who have been imprisoned because of a false and unjust accusation are made severe. This side of the justice system is what this research is all about. For those innocent people who suffered because of the miscarriage of justice, the government provides for a program that seeks to indemnify the misery of its victims. This is known as the Victims’ Compensation Program- a program administered by the Board of Claims that gives compensation in an amount not exceeding P60,000.00 to victims of unjust imprisonment or detention, and P10,000.00 to victims of violent crimes. Hence, this research seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the said program based on its conceptualization, the processing of claims, the sufficiency and appropriateness of the given amount, and the responsiveness of the Claims officers to the needs of their clientele. In order to evaluate the program based on the above factors, pertinent documents were acquired, and in-depth interviews were conducted. Triangulation of data with concerned NGOs was also done since most information on the programs’ claimants were withheld for reasons of confidentiality. After the said methods were employed, it has been found out that the program’s implementation has not been effective. This can be attributed to the small percentage of unjust imprisonment victims that the program compensated for the last 5 years. Moreover, the program’s conceptualization is not enough to justify its existence in the justice system since it merely proposes curative solutions to the real problem of the justice system. Also, the handling of claims applications was found out to be ineffective due to the strict guidelines are imposed on the claims. This consequently reduces the number of victims that the Board compensates. Also, the maximum allowable amount mandated by law is definitely insufficient to compensate the said victims, for the offered amount is so meager. And lastly, the Board’s employees cannot be deemed as responsive, especially the evaluators since they have to be objective and technical on their decision due to the nature of the documents they must evaluate. And since the program was found out to be generally ineffective, this paper recommends the following: first, augment the maximum allowable amount for compensation; second, lengthen the timeframe within which to file claims because there has not been much information campaign about the program; third, widen the scope of victims compensated by the program; and fourth, add more prosecutors who would act as evaluators in order to accommodate more claims.