No missing docs traced yet at ransacked courtroom

Only a cordless phone was found missing so far at the courtroom of Regional Trial Court Branch 55 in Mandaue City reportedly ransacked over the weekend, as tracing what court records might be missing is quite difficult as of this time.

This was learned from the court interpreter, who refused to be named. She said that Branch 55 is handling over 1,000 cases so far and that tracing what court records might be missing at this point in time is quite difficult.

Also, city police station 1 chief Abraham Ocampo said yesterday that RTC Branch 55 presiding judge Ulric Cañete has not yet conducted an inventory of the court's records.

Ocampo said Cañete and his court staff are still busy preparing resolutions, orders and other court-related work.

Last Monday, Cañete and his staff were caught by surprise at the complete disarray of court documents in their office. Upon realizing the office was ransacked, Cañete was forced to cancel all the 12 cases due for hearing on that day as he also asked the assistance of the Special Weapons and Tactics to check if the courtroom is safe.

The court's daily hearings resumed normally yesterday.

Ocampo further said that the elements of the Scene of the Crime Operatives already got fingerprints of the court staff, utility workers, including fingerprint marks at the windows, among others.

He said that up to now, they still have no idea as to the identities and motive of whoever was responsible for the incident.

The court interpreter also said they don't have any idea as to what could have motivated the perpetrators when the judge is not handling any sensational or controversial cases but mostly civil cases like annulment, land disputes and cases involving small-time drug suspects.

But because the courtroom's several valuable items like computers, printers, among others were not stolen during the break-in, this raised suspicion that the culprits were after court records.

This is the first time that Cañete's courtroom was ransacked. - Mitchelle P. Calipayan