SC to create U.S. Marshals-type unit to secure judiciary people

Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban recently ordered the formation of the Committee on Security to address the problem of securing justices and judges nationwide, and to study the creation of a unit similar to the United States Marshals Service.

Panganiban issued Memorandum Order No. 02-2006, dated January 2, 2006, organizing the committee that would devise ways to ensure that all judiciary personnel and courts in the country are secured.

Named head of the committee is Justice Cancio Garcia, with court administrator Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. as vice chairman, and Court of Appeals presiding justice Ruben Reyes, SC security division chief Danilo Pablo and SC Employees Association president Jose Dante Guerrero as members.

The order came in the wake of recurrent threats and assault on the lives of justices and justices, the most recent of which was the gunning down of Regional Trial Court-Pasay City judge Henrick Gingoyon.

The security committee was a body existing in the past and the Gingoyon killing prompted Panganiban to reconstitute and reactivate this to protect the lives of people in the judiciary.

Panganiban also directed the committee to study the proposal of Justice Antonio Carpio for a joint program with the National Bureau of Investigation in organizing a U.S. Marshals-type security unit.

The U.S. Marshals Service is the oldest and most versatile federal law enforcement agency in that country. Its Judicial Security Division provides protective services to over 2,000 justices and judges, and court officials in at least 400 courts around the U.S.

Among the main functions of this body is to ensure a safe conduct of judicial proceedings, with its members designated as specially deputized officers with full law enforcement authority, such as taking custody of arrested people, taking charge of prison facilities, and probing of fugitives.

Should a similar body be created here, Carpio's proposal stipulated it to provide preventive security, and ensure the proper dispensation of justice against those who may have assaulted, injured or killed any member of the judiciary.

On August 2004, the SC authorized the Office of the Court Administrator to create the OCA committee on security for Lower Court judges, headed by Deputy Court Administrator Christopher Lock.

On April 2005, the SC approved the guidelines of such committee on the details of court personnel as escort of judges facing imminent threats on their lives.

Then on October 2005, the SC also approved the guidelines set by the same committee in granting judges special processing privileges for permits to carry firearms.