Beyond Legal Transformation: Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice Mechanisms in the Philippines
![handle is hein.journals/philplj93 and id is 87 raw text is: BEYOND LEGAL TRANSFORMATION: ASSESSING THE
IMPACT OF TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE MECHANISMS
IN THE PHILIPPINES*
Ruby Rosselle L. Tugade**
ABSTRACT
The democratic transition experienced by the Philippines
more than thirty years ago ushered in a constitutional order
that guarantees non-recurrence of its authoritarian past. The
1987 Philippine Constitution paved the way for the creation
of an independent Commission on Human Rights. State
legislation also created transitional justice mechanisms such
as the Presidential Commission on Good Government for
the recovery of ill-gotten wealth and, more recently, the
Human Rights Victims' Claims Board for the distribution of
reparations. This paper examines the impact of these
transitional justice mechanisms addressing Marcos-era
violations in the Philippines. With the ongoing negation and
negotiation of the Marcos-era narrative in Philippine society,
this paper seeks to assess the net effect of deploying
transitional justice as a framework in shaping law and policy
within the context of the Philippines after redemocratization.
I. INTRODUCTION
The 2016 national elections in the Philippines was a time of
reckoning-framed by President Benigno Simeon Aquino III in his last State
of the Nation Address as a referendum for the Straight and Righteous
Path1-as a decisive moment for the prospects of democracy for the
* Cite as Ruby Rosselle L. Tugade, Beyond Legal Transformation: Assessing the Impact of
TransitionalJustice Mechanisms in the Philippines, 93 PHIL. L. J. 77, [page cited] (2020).
- Member, Philippine Bar; Master of Laws (cand.), United Nations Interregional
Crime and Justice Institute; Juris Doctor, University of the Philippines (2016); Vice Chair,
PHILIPPINE LAWJOURNAL (Volume 88); Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, cum laude,
Ateneo de Manila University (2010). This work is a product of the author's independent
research and are solely reflective of her own views.
1 Benigno S. Aquino III, Sixth State of the Nation Address (July 27, 2015), available
at http://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2015/07/27/english-president-aquino-sixth-sona/
77](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/philplj93&div=9&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Beyond Legal Transformation: Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice Mechanisms in the Philippines
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most