The Linguist

24 The Linguist Vol/65 No/2 ciol.org.uk/thelinguist FEATURES Do Filipino defendants have better access to justice in UK courts than they would at 'home', asks Lorie Ann Halliday I n Philippine courts, Filipino defendants face the same language barriers that they would in UK courts, as English is the predominant language used. However, in the UK, they are provided with interpreters for the entire court proceedings. The official languages in the Philippines are Filipino (the national language) and English (the primary language of officialdom). 1 Filipino is heavily based on Tagalog, a regional language widely spoken in the northern part of the country, as well as Spanish, English and other major Philippine languages. This is why Filipino and Tagalog are often used interchangeably. So just like in the UK, a Tagalog interpreter is present in a Philippine court if the litigants are Filipinos – but unlike in the UK, interpreters do not interpret everything from English to Filipino for the defendants. In the Philippines, interpreters are court staff members, normally positioned in the middle of the court room along with the stenographer and clerk of the court. Interpreters may help with clerk duties and work with stenographers in preparing court hearing transcripts. Defendants in criminal cases in the UK have the right to an interpreter unless they say they don't need one and the court is satisfied they understand the consequences of waiving this right. As a Filipino interpreter in the UK, I sit next to the defendants in the secure dock, which is usually enclosed by high glass panels. I interpret to them everything that is said in the court, from the conversation between the judge and advocates, the judge's legal directions to the jury, examinations and cross-examinations of witnesses, to the barristers' final speeches, the jury's verdict and the judge's wrapping up at the end of the trial. And when defendants speak in their own language, I interpret everything into English. Everything is in English In each of some 2,000 courts in the Philippines there is an interpreter assigned, but they are only needed when witnesses and defendants want to testify in Filipino. The judge and advocates ask questions in English to the witnesses and defendants, who then respond in Filipino based on the Filipino interpretation. The interpreter allows the court proceedings to carry on in English and the transcript of the whole session is in English. These transcripts are submitted to higher courts, including the Court of Appeals, the second highest court next to the Supreme Court. The problem is that the majority of defendants in criminal cases are Filipinos who do not speak English, according to Philippine Court of Appeals Associate Justice Apolinario Bruselas Jr. He described a regular scenario in court: The judge opens the session in English. The charges are read in English and translated into Filipino in the arraignment and plea. This is the only time that translation from English into Filipino happens. After that, the trial is conducted in English throughout unless someone is testifying in Filipino. Bruselas says defendants whose English is limited are "clueless" during the trial. It's only when the verdict is announced that they realise, "Ah, guilty na pala ako" ('Oh, so I'm guilty'). The court decision is also written in English. Because most defendants and complainants do not understand what is happening in court, many decisions are appealed. This is why Justice Bruselas decided to write court decisions in Filipino. Since 2019, he has written 149 decisions in the language and encouraged his fellow judges and lawyers to do the same. A multilingual society The majority of Filipinos still speak their native language and Filipino in their day-to-day lives. There are at least 175 native languages in the Philippines, with Tagalog, Cebuano 2 and Ilocano the most widely spoken regional languages. Bruselas explains that Philippine society is divided between the elites who know English well, and the majority – mostly marginalised and poor – who do not. "The first thing that urged me to use Filipino for our decisions was my experience as a trial judge in the lower courts," he told me. 3 "In most criminal cases, the accused are marginalised, mostly poor people. Those accused of criminal cases, murder, homicide, rape, estafa [equivalent to fraud in UK law], theft, robbery, mostly are all poor." Indeed, Justice in Filipino? "Our people deserve to understand our laws… thus they should be written in the common language of the people"

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