Tuesday, November 04, 2008 Gov’t service vehicles useful for family courts, says judge
WHILE saying he was not interested in being provided with a vehicle, a judge admitted that a car would be very useful for family courts.
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Olegario Sarmiento said yesterday that he brought up the matter to Cebu City Councilor Gerry Carillo after the mayor’s announcement that the City would provide each RTC judge a vehicle.
“Personally, I am not interested. Pero ang prisohan naa sa bukid ug sige mi’g board meeting (But the jail is up in the mountains and we always have board meetings there),” Sarmiento said, referring to the Cebu City Operation Second Chance (CCOSC).
The CCOSC holds juvenile offenders and is slowly being transformed into a residential rehabilitation facility for minors. It is located in Brgy. Kalunasan. To go to the place, one drives along a steep, rocky, uphill road.
Sarmiento said the three family courts can just share one vehicle. He heads the cluster of Cebu City RTC family courts. The other family court judges are Manuel Patalinghug and Raphael Yrastorza.
Returned
Sarmiento presides over RTC branch 24, Patalinghug over branch 22 and Yrastorza over branch 14.
Sarmiento said that he brought up the matter because he recalled that when Judge Pampio Abarrintos was still the head the family court cluster of RTC Cebu, Abarrintos had a service vehicle from the government.
According to Sar-miento, Carillo confirmed that Abarrintos, who became executive judge and moved on to the Court of Appeals before being transferred from Cebu, had already returned the vehicle to the City Government.
Sarmiento said his duties as the chairman of the family courts also take him to the youth in Argao.
Judge Patalinghug, meanwhile, also raised the need of the family courts for a service vehicle.
“With the vehicle, dili na ma-hinder ang (jail) visitation (our jail visitations will no longer get hindered),” he said.
But he did not express any objection to the City government’s plan to provide each judge with a car as long as it will not be used for private functions, family outings and trips not related to court duties. (KAB)
