Monday, March 20, 2006
Mobile courts to serve Mindanao soon: justice
THE Supreme Court (SC) would soon acquire more mobile courts under its "Justice on Wheels" project to be deployed in Mindanao and Visayas.
Justice Zenaida Elepanio, SC senior deputy court administrator, who was in Davao City over the weekend to lecture in a continuing education seminar for judges made this announcement.
Elepanio is deeply involved in the project as vice chair.
The first mobile court launched during the watch of retired SC chief justice Hilario R. Davide Jr. is doing wonders in decongesting the jails in Metro Manila's more than a dozen cities.
Overpopulation of the jails -- accommodating from three to five times their capacities -- resulting in delayed justice is one of the targets of the judicial reforms program of the highest tribunal with the support of the World Bank.
Elepanio said the mobile court, built at the cost of close to P7 million, is inspired by a similar project in Guatemala, where Davide observed judicial reforms during a World Bank-sponsored visit in 2003.
During its first rollout last year, the mobile court effected the release of more than 600 detainees from Metro Manila jails, said Elepanio Friday.
She said about 300 of those released were youth offenders, more than four times the number of cases resolved over the same period under the usual pace of court work.
The juveniles in conflict with the law were mostly involved in dangerous drug cases (caught in possession or acting as drug pushers' couriers), cellphone snatching and other theft cases, illegal possession of firearms and serious physical injuries.
The court on wheels is actually an air-conditioned bus fitted with a judge's chamber, a mediation room, a small conform room, and other amenities, which are even absent in ordinary courts.
The special vehicle, Elepanio said, is painted white with a lavender band, and is usually parked just outside City Hall near the jails for two days to one week, depending upon the number of cases slated for hearing.
Many who benefited were detainees, whose complainants are no longer interested to pursue the charges, those who have stayed in detention longer than the possible sentence they receive if convicted, or those involved in family cases like domestic relations such as legal separations, and those who want to enter plea-bargaining, among many others.
The initial performance of mobile court has impressed the World Bank, which has reportedly expressed willingness to fund a total of 10 more mobile units to be deployed to Visayas and Mindanao.
Elepanio said as more mobile courts are available they would be fielded to Surigao, Lanao, and Agusan provinces, which are suffering from lack of judges in existing courts.
In the future, the court in wheels will be brought to the Davao area, where the advocacy for the welfare of children is strong and minors in conflict with the law are in large numbers.
Elepanio said some 50,000 children in conflict with the law are held at any given time in the country's 12 rehabilitation centers, quoting data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (March 20, 2006 issue)
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