100 Ilocos detainees freed thru justice on wheels

LAOAG CITY, Philippines – The mobile hearings of the Supreme Court on Tuesday led to the early termination of about 100 criminal and civil cases in various courts in Ilocos Norte.

Most cases heard and provisionally dismissed under the Enhanced Justice on Wheels (Ejow) program involved detainees of the Ilocos Norte provincial jail who were released and could now spend their Christmas with their families.

Deputy court administrator Nimfa Cuesta-Vilches, Ejow vice chair, said it was the first occasion that the justice on wheels bus rolled into the provincial jail grounds here and also served as the last stop of the mobile court for 2010. The mobile court has gone to Ilocos Sur, La Union, Baguio City, Cagayan and Isabela for the program’s Northern Luzon leg.

“The cases were pre-screened. We can calendar hearings from 50 to 100 cases and dispose of them in two to three hours,” Vilches said.

She said parties with pending cases are 95 percent assured of being set free if they go through the mobile court.

“We do not set cases for conviction or for presentation of evidence. All can be decided quickly by the judges,” she added.

Records showed that some cases have been pending from 10 to 15 years while one case, for grave coercion, dates back to 1972.

Lawyer Edward Ulep, counsel in the case for grave coercion, said his client was in his early 20s when he was arraigned. He was provisionally released at that time through a property bond. The case was later archived in 1994 and has been pending since.

Ulep’s client, now in his early 60s, had his case revived and dismissed under the mobile court.

Vilches said the mobile court concept is not merely to transfer the hearings from the court rooms to the bus.

“We help the judges choose cases that are set for termination. There’s no more need for long, drawn-out hearings that normally happen in court rooms,” she said.

The cases heard by the mobile court involved accused who have spent jail time that is longer than their maximum penalties if they were convicted.

Vilches said an accused found guilty of an offense that requires only six years of imprisonment should be released if he has spent 10 years behind bars.

“If you set the case for hearing today and the accused is found guilty, he or she should be set free because he had already languished in jail more than the time [that the law has set],” she said.

Other cases that the mobile court disposed of were civil cases ranging from settlement of estate or land disputes.

The court also speeds up the termination of “victimless offenses” or cases where there are no private complainants, such as those charged with violation of the dangerous drugs law or violation of ordinances.

“These have to be decided quickly because there is no private complainant. The complainant is the government,” Vilches said.

The mobile hearings program, which began in 2004 under then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., was initially meant to decongest prison cells in Metro Manila. It later went to the provinces to help unclog dockets and speed up cases in areas where no judges were assigned. –Cristina Arzadon, Inquirer Northern Luzon