One who is fond of watching movies at the cable network seldom misses viewing episodes of crime scene investigations by police agencies in the United States of America.
There are also a lot of movies about crimes, which took the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) a good number of years to solve. Some of them were solved a decade or two from its commission with the help of the most modern scientific technologies.
Other investigating agencies in Europe are as equally capable or even better than agents of the FBI or police forces in the United States in solving crimes.
Obviously, this is so by reason of their access to the latest advances in science and technology, which has enabled them to identify the persons at the scene of the crime during its commission through DNA samplings and comparison.
But in this country, our prosecutors still rely heavily on testimonial evidence to establish the guilt of a defendant, who is for example facing charges of homicide or murder.
And so, the life and liberty of an accused person in a homicide or murder case that perilously hangs on the balance during trial must rest on what a witness, who allegedly was present during the commission of the crime, would say in Court.
In other words, it hinges on the honesty, truthfulness and fairness of a witness, which is quite ironic for a country that is taking lightly the crime of false testimony as defined and penalized under the Revised Penal Code.
As a former government prosecutor, I have yet to read a case of false testimony filed against a lying witness, who was prosecuted, found guilty and meted out the stiff penalty provided for by law.
On the contrary, in this country an oath or affirmation is taken so lightly that nobody cares so much as to the truth of the contents of an affidavit or sworn statement as the common practice here is that affiants themselves may belie the contents thereof in subsequent ones they will execute to withdraw a case filed in court.
Sadly, this is most often than not tolerated by judges in their effort to decongest their clogging dockets, which practice has only made a testimonial evidence all the more unreliable.
The government is said to be in the thick of modernization efforts not only in the military sector but in others as well; but if we really cannot as yet modernize our crime investigations, then we might as well sharpen the teeth of our laws and start prosecuting those who are fond of giving false testimonies and swear falsely to an oath.
If we succeed in this, at least, conviction resulting from a criminal prosecution of a crime where heavy reliance is made to rest on testimonial evidence would really be beyond the pale of doubt.
1. CBS' CSI- LV, NY & Miami, sure wish we have their technology here. But we have ABS-CBN's SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operatives). Gus Abelgas narrates actual cases handled by our police investigators; 2. Men in robes tolerate false testimony JUST to declog dockets... c'mon, who are we kidding? 3. A good cross can destroy false testimony
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