TO address delays in the adjudication of cases, the House Subcommittee on Judicial Reforms has vowed to prioritize the passage of bills seeking to create more court “salas” in several parts of the country when session resumes in May.
PDP-Laban Rep. Vicente S. E. Veloso of Leyte, panel chairman, said the shortage of court salas is one of the main problems of the judiciary.
Veloso, a former Court of Appeals justice, said the insufficiency in the number of trial courts is a cause of delay in the adjudication of cases.
Currently, there are 32 pending bills at the Lower House creating regional trial courts (RTCs) in different provinces.
Section 16, Article III of the 1987 Constitution provides that “all persons shall have the right to a speedy disposition of their cases before all judicial, quasijudicial, or administrative bodies”.
Veloso said the subcommittee held initial discussions on House Bill (HB) 652, seeking to create an additional RTC branch, a municipal trial court (MTC) and a municipal circuit trial court (MCTC), all in Misamis Occidental; and HB 286, urging the creation of an additional branch of the RTC in the Mountain Province.
Meanwhile, HB 3492 seeks the creation of three RTC branches in Pampanga, and HBs 3565 and 3749 both seek the creation of four branches of the RTC in Zamboanga City.
HB 652 aims to ease the burden of the courts, which will certainly lead to a speedier and inexpensive resolution of cases. The bill seeks to create an additional RTC branch in Ozamiz City; the conversion of the MCTC comprising the municipalities of Clarin and Tudela into an MTC of Clarin; and the establishment of an MCTC covering the municipalities of Sinacaban and Tudela, all in the Second District of Misamis Occidental.
Nacionalista Party Rep. Henry Oaminal of Misamis Occidental, chairman of the Subcommittee on Correctional Reforms, said the existing judicial courts in the province’s Second District are beset with docket congestions and delays in the resolution of cases due to the increase in crime rate and the rise in the number of legal cases filed.
He said his bill is “in consonance with the State’s policy of providing effective mechanism for the efficient administration of justice.”
HB 286 seeks to create an additional branch of the RTC to be located in the municipality of Paracelis, Mountain Province.
The bill also seeks to address the “great injustice and social inequity” to the litigants brought about by the far distance of the nearest RTC located in the capital town of Bontoc from the municipality of Paracelis.
Nacionalista Party Rep. Maximo Dalog of the Mountain Province said litigants who come from Paracelis have to travel more than 10 hours, passing through the provinces of Ifugao, Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya, just to attend the hearings in Bontoc, Mountain Province, where the judicial courts are located.
“One of the reasons most of the cases originating from Paracelis get dismissed is because the complainants and their witnesses fail to appear before the RTCs in Bontoc,” Dalog said, citing the difficulty and cost of travel for the failure of the litigants and witnesses to appear in the trial courts.
Also, HB 3492, which seeks the creation of three RTC branches in Macabebe, Pampanga, is aimed at “improving the disposition and administration of justice, ensuring the right of the accused to a speedy trial, and promoting efficient public service.”
PDP-Laban Rep. Juan Pablo Bondoc of Pampanga, said there is an urgent need to create additional trial courts in view of the continued increase in the number of cases filed in court.
HB 3565, which seeks to create four additional branches of RTC in Zamboanga City, aims to enhance the administration and disposition of justice, which is in line with the constitutional mandate of a speedy trial of all cases.
Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Manuel Jose M. Dalipe of Zamboanga said there is a crucial need to increase the number of RTC branches in the city, as the existing trial courts cannot cope with the voluminous number of pending cases.
He added there might be an increase in the number of cases to be filed, in view of the Duterte administration’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs.
In his HB 3749, Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino Rep. Celso L. Lobregat of Zamboanga proposed the establishment of four RTC branches in Zamboanga City.
He said the establishment of courts will address the urgent need to decongest the court dockets and promote speedy adjudication of cases in their city.
Lobregat, a former Zamboanga City mayor, quoted Supreme Court Justice Presbitero Velasco as saying that “the only way to expedite case processing and adjudication is to give each judge a manageable load of 300 cases.”