Ho Lok Sang

Opinion | Hongkongers jailed in the Philippines: what use is democracy when the rule of law is so poor?

Ho Lok Sang says the Philippines, despite its democratic institutions, ranks far below Hong Kong and China in the Rule of Law Index. Cases involving Hongkongers in Philippine jails should bring home that democracy is not always the answer

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Lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun (right) and Billy Tang Lung-piu (centre), brother of jailed Tang Lung-wai, meet the media at Immigration Tower in Wan Chai. Photo: Roy Issa

Ho Lok Sang

Published: 12:04pm, 21 Dec 2018Updated: 7:51pm, 21 Dec 2018

The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index ranks China 75th among 113 jurisdictions, a grade that includes sub-rankings of 47th for absence of corruption, 57th for civil justice, and 54th for criminal justice. Hong Kong is ranked 16th overall, and comes in 10th, 12th and 16th respectively for the factors that the index is based on.

The United States is 19th overall, with sub-rankings of 19th, 26th and 20th. The World Justice Project is administered by an independent non-profit research team based in the US. Hong Kong’s overall ranking of 16th is unchanged from the previous year. The US has dropped one place. China is up five places.

The mainland is still not doing great, but it is clearly doing better and better. For absence of corruption and criminal justice, it actually ranks above the median. For civil justice, it gets the median score.

The Philippines, for all its democratic institutions, is doing far worse than China, in 88th place overall. It is ranked 62nd for absence of corruption, 81st for civil justice and 102nd for criminal justice. Unfortunately, four Hongkongers have experienced the Philippine criminal justice system first-hand. They were all recently sentenced to life for drug possession.

Hongkongers are escorted by jail personnel after being sentenced to life imprisonment for drug possession in Olongapo, in the Philippines, on December 14. Leung Shu-fook, Lo Wing-fai, Kwok Kam-wah and Chan Kwok-tung claim they have been framed. Photo: EPA

The incident occurred in July 2016. Apparently, the four men had been hired to bring a fishing boat from the Philippines back to Hong Kong, but were intercepted by the Philippine police. A reporter’s video of the police raid showed no illegal drugs were found in the four men’s bags during an initial search, and the video was presented in court. A lawyer for the four men had been confident that they would be cleared of the charges, given such strong evidence. Unfortunately, the judge ruled that there were “gaps between segments” of the video, and took the word of the prosecution instead.