MATI CITY, Davao Oriental -- The Supreme Court's "Justice on Wheels" (JOW) was brought to Mati City Thursday to hear several cases that have been pending for years.
SC Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo said the Justice on Wheels of Davao Oriental will also be offering medical and dental assistance to those in jail.
"Ang hustisya, hindi lamang pagbaba ng hukuman sa pasya ng mga kaso kundi pagkalinga at pag-alaga sa kanilang kalusugan," Justice del Castillo said.
Among the services of the Justice on Wheels include the hearing of mediation cases and processing of applications to the barangay protection program.
Del Castillo added that from 2008 to date, the enhanced JOW has released 2,923 detained apart from the 71 freed just Thursday.
Nationwide records showed that 8,768 detainees availed of the medical program; 2,051 of the legal services; 5,533 cases were dispatched through mediation; and 13,523 benefited from the information dissemination conducted all over the country.
Simultaneous activities such as mobile court hearings, jail visitations, dialogues between barangay officials and other court officials were conducted Thursday.
Meanwhile, Regional Trial court Acting judge Robert Axalan said most cases heared at their mobile court are cases wherein complainants failed to appear during hearings despite the issuance of a subpoena.
Axalan added he is amenable to the enhanced JOW because the judges will be compelled to re-examine stagnant cases raffled off before their sala. (RMH)