NEWS: “The poor deserve more than crumbs of justice”- Chief Justice Puno speaking in Justice on Wheels Tagum sortie

sept 7

TAGUM CITY – Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno, who visited this city on Friday for the Justice on Wheels mobile court program, stressed on the need of the judiciary to bring justice near to the doorsteps of the poor saying that “they deserve more than crumbs of justice.”

Speaking before judges and lawyers from Davao City, Compostela Valley and Davao del Norte, the chief justice said that given that poverty has been a crucial issue in accessing justice in the country’s legal system “justice if it is allowed to be bias, it should be bias in favor to the poor.”

He reminded members of the judiciary in the provinces on the greater task of helping achieve equality not in rhetorics but at the very least in the country’s justice system.

Puno added that amidst the “currents” that presently erode the rule of the law in the country, such erosion has been caused by the incapability to protect the poor who suffer most during socio-economic crisis handled by the overprivileged in the society.

But he said that “so long as there are citizens and groups who fight for the rule of law, we need not lose hope.”

The chief justice himself supervised the delivery of the Justice on Wheels (JoW) for the two provinces which made its sortie at Mankilam this city.

At least five inmates from Compostela Valley, who have been serving jail terms for about 14 years already due to the crime of rape, are due to be released after they were acquitted during last Friday’s JoW hearing. One of their company was convicted of the crime.

The number and names of inmates from Davao del Norte whose old cases were disposed by JoW in the sortie here are still unavailable at presstime.

The JoW which Puno reinvigorated July this year is mediating and deciding cases especially involving those inmates who are above 70 years old and detainees whose cases had dragged for longer periods than prescribed by law or those who have finished serving their sentence or were overstaying.

It aims to increase the access to justice by the poor, declog courts of unnecessary and unimportant cases and decongest jails nationwide.

He reported that court-annexed mediations through the JoW program has successfully resolved 1,329 of the 1,457 total cases or an 85-percent success rate from January to June this year alone.

The chief justice brought along with him the especially-designed Justice on Wheels bus which has two court chambers inside it where JoW hearings were made. It was parked last Friday at the compound of the contiguous provincial jails of the two provinces at Mankilam.

He also inspected the condition of the inmates in the provincial jails.

Puno also made keynote address to a dialogue on anti-violence against women and their children with the city’s barangay officials and inaugurated the newly completed Integrated Bar of the Philippines building of the IBP-Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley Chapter.

Before the JoW’s sortie in the city, it had so far led to the releasing of at least 60 inmates in the places they have visited in different parts of the country.

The JoW has already visited city jails in Manila, Quezon City, Caloocan City, Kalibo, Aklan and Cebu. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News) http://ruralurbanews.blogspot.com

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Welcome CJ!

sept 5

Welcome to the Palm City, Chief Justice Reynato Puno. It’s his first visit in Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley since when he became the country’s highest magistrate.

The “Justice on Wheels” mobile court program the Chief Justice re-launched with vibrancy just last July indeed augurs great opportunities for the poor to access justice. The court, being not insulated by the macroeconomic forces and being a branch of our government has, from the vantage point of being in the provinces, now become more inaccessible not by its location nor of its processes that grind slow (as we know much of this since time immemorial) but by the high tariffs in court fees as well as the legal fees from members of the Bar, fuera delos buenos from those few offering pro bono or affordable services.

In the end, it’s more due to economics that poor suspects and those convicted would just choose to languish in jail beyond the period prescribed by law or fight it for an appeal which they could not sustain anyway or which could only have their family and kins outside in jail suffer economic hardships if not loss of the properties.

Thus, we completely agree with this Supreme Court’s JoW mobile court program that not only tries to make justice accessible, as justice delayed is justice denied that is most often hitting the poor who could not buy time nor buy justice, as they say, but also visits the inmates to look on their plight behind bars in the way that Matthew 25:36 put it: “I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News) http://ruralurbanews.blogspot.com

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NEWS: Supreme Court Chief Justice Puno in Tagum City today

sept 5

Welcome CJ to the Palm City!
Justice on Wheels to dispose cases of aged, overstaying inmates of Davnor, Comval

Chief Justice Reynato Puno will arrive in Tagum City today bringing in the Supreme Court’s Justice on Wheels (JoW) mobile court program to Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley.

The JoW mobile court will hear, mediate and decide cases especially involving those inmates who are above 70 years old and detainees whose cases had dragged for longer periods than prescribed by law or those who have finished serving their sentence or were overstaying.

Puno re-launched the “Justice on Wheels” program last July to increase the access to justice by the poor, declog courts of unnecessary and unimportant cases and decongest jails nationwide.
Chief Justice Puno will bring along with him the especially-designed Justice on Wheels bus which has two court chambers inside it where hearings will be made, and in matter of hours, these would lead for the release of inmates.

In a phone interview with Sidlak yesterday, Atty. Gilbert Torrijos, Clerk of Court of the Regional Trial Court in Tagum Atty. informed that aside from the two hearings inside the JoW vehicle, which will park inside the compound of the Davao del Norte Provincial Rehabilitation Center,  two other hearings will be made in designated rooms inside the provincial jails of the two provinces.

The provincial jails of Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley are all located at Mankilam, Tagum City.

Atty. Torrijos also said that other hearings for JoW will simultaneously occur at the Hall of Justice in the Capitol complex at Mankilam.

He informed that Chief Justice Puno in the morning will be the keynote speaker of a forum with the indigenous people, farmers and firsherfolks to be held at the Bulwagan ng Panlalawigan.

Aside from hearing cases, JOW mobile court activities also include jail inspection and medical checkup for detainees.

Chief Justice Puno has been personally spearheading in the deployment of mobile court room nationwide to look at the plight of the inmates and fast track their cases.

Reports said that so far it led to the releasing of at least 60 inmates in the places they have visited.

The JOW has already visited city jails in Manila, Quezon City, Caloocan City, Kalibo, Aklan, Cebu and will have the provinces of Davao del Sur and Sarangani as the next stops in this current Southern Mindanao sortie, reports added.

Thus, all roads will lead today to Mankilam for the 16 judges in the two provinces as well as for lawyers in the cases selected for JoW hearings.

At present, Davao del Norte has a total of 9 courts which are the 4 Regional Trial Courts (RTC) and 1 Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) in Tagum City, 2 RTCs and 1 MTCC in Panabo City, and 1 Municipal Circuit Trial Court (MCTC) in Carmen town.

Compostela Valley, on the other hand, has 1 RTC and 1 MCTC in Nabunturan capital town, 1 MCTC each for Mabini, Monkayo and Compostela, and 1 each for Laac and Maco.

Recently, the Supreme Court reported that court-annexed mediations like the JoW program had settled at least 28,563 or 70 percent of the total 40,729 cases that underwent mediation in the last six years that declogged courts.

Wikipedia reported that JoW, borrowed from Guatemala justice system, was first launched in the Philippines on 2004 with World Bank and Asian Development Bank funds. 4 buses were converted into mobile courtrooms, to have served Manila and other regions. The Manila City Jail was built for only 1,000 inmates but is now crammed with 4,602.(Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News) http://ruralurbanews.blogspot.com

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