Puno calls on government to fill up court vacancies

To ensure that "those who have less in life should have more in law," former Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ricardo "Dong" Puno Jr. underscored the need to fill up the thousands of vacancies in the judiciary and ease the worsening backlog in court cases.

Puno, a lawyer, said that the congestion of the courts must be addressed not only to speed up the administration of justice in the country but to ensure that poor litigants get the same treatment as their rich counterparts do under our justice system.

Puno, one of the senatorial frontrunners of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, pointed to studies showing that there are over 2,000 positions for judges in first and second level courts, of which some 700, or one-third are vacant. He added that there are several thousands of vacancies in the prosecution service.

But while ‘there is a severe shortage of judges, there is a deluge of cases filed in court. In 1999 alone, 588,649 new cases were lodged with the lower courts, Puno added.

He said that the shortage of judges and lawyers is primarily due to the lack of takers for positions in the bench and the prosecution service.

"Dapat talagang bigyan ng pansin ang ating judicial system tulad ang sweldo halimbawa ng public defenders, prosecutors at huwes na napakababa talaga (We should really devote our attention to several aspects of our judicial system, such as the salaries of public defenders, prosecutors and judges which are really very low)," he said in a radio interview.

Puno said that top-caliber lawyers often turn down offers to work in the government because they do not want to leave behind the competitive salaries they get in the private sector.

Besides justice and good government, Puno’s eight-point platform focuses on jobs and education, housing, a stronger campaign against illegal drugs, food security, environment protection, peace and press freedom.