P.5M needed to beef up Palace of Justice security

The government needs about P500,000 to secure Cebu City judges in the four-story Palace of Justice building from possible attacks by unsatisfied litigants.

Regional Trial Court judge Geraldine Faith Econg is the one drafting the project activities intended to secure the judges from possible threats.

Econg, one of the sharpshooters from among the Cebu judges, was asked by RTC executive judge Simeon Dumdum Jr. to study and draft the project.

In 2004, the Supreme Court adopted measures on how to address the security of incumbent judges as a result of violence and killings, which were found to be related to their duties.

Former RTC judge Henrick Gingoyon, a Cebuano assigned in Luzon, was among the judges who were killed in the country, probably by unsatisfied litigants.

RTC judge Leopoldo Cañete was also ambushed by armed men in Capitol Hills while he was driving in his car, but he survived the attack.

One of the steps taken by the Supreme Court was to allow the judges to have one of their staff act as their personal escort and to allow them carry guns.

Econg said many of her fellow judges in Cebu are already carrying guns, but she did not name them.

At present, more than a dozen court employees at the Palace of Justice have volunteered to be members of the so-called Judiciary Security Group tasked to assist the private guards manning the entrance of the court building.

Econg said the projected total cost of the security project does not include the purchase of any materials to upgrade the facilities at the Palace of Justice and the fees of security experts who will be hired to teach the judges and security personnel.

"As part of the project, services of foreign and local consultants engaged in securing courthouses and judges when outside of their courtrooms are to be engaged through grants from one or more of the Development Partners of the Supreme Court," Econg told Dumdum. - Rene U. Borromeo/BRP