SC mobile court program resolves 2,300 cases

LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines—For the past two years, the novel “Justice on Wheels” program of the Supreme Court has helped resolve more than 2,300 criminal and civil cases filed in courts across the country, Chief Justice Reynato Puno said here on Friday.

In his speech at the ceremonial opening of the program in Quezon in front of a Regional Trial Court building here, Puno was all praises for the initial output of the mobile court project.

“It is equivalent to the performance of 400 good judges,” he told the assembly of court, local government, police, and jail workers and officials.

Puno said several thousand cases had also been resolved through the mediation system conducted aboard the mobile courts.

Win-win solution

“The win-win solution to every case is reconciliation and it is in accord with our culture,” he said.

The high court has been receiving lots of invitations to bring the Justice on Wheels program to other parts of the country, Puno said.

After the opening ceremony, Puno and four other Supreme Court justices watched a court hearing inside one of the two air-conditioned buses parked in front of the RTC building.

With the success of the non-conventional approach of resolving disputes to unclog the court of unresolved cases, Puno expressed support to the proposal to conduct court hearings inside the jail compound.

Risks

He agreed with an observation, voiced out by an official of the local probation and parole office during a multisectoral dialogue conducted later, that bringing inmates to courts to attend hearings would entail risks to the public and court workers.

Puno cited several instances when inmates caused trouble inside the courtroom, some of which endangered the lives of court workers.

“It was reported that some of the inmates were tied with mere straws because the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology lacks handcuffs,” he said, quoting reports of past cases.

For the poor

The Chief Justice has called on local government units to help construct court cubicles inside the jail compound.

The Justice on Wheels program, which was conceptualized in 2007, was launched after the Supreme Court called for a forum to confront the issue of access to justice by the “underprivileged” sector of society.

Puno reiterated that “restorative justice” was the philosophy behind the county’s penal system and that the government was doing everything to hasten the delivery of justice to all, especially the poor and the under-privileged.

He and his peers visited the nearby provincial jail.

They conducted a brief dialogue with jail officials inside the prison compound behind the padlocked steel gate.

Puno approached a group of frail and sickly old inmates and asked about their conditions. He instructed officials of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Quezon chapter to help the old inmates in the speedy resolution of their cases and their eventual release from jail. –Delfin Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon