"We are very much concerned about the continuous vacancy of presiding judges of all the municipal trial courts in the province. This boils down to the peace and order situation of the province as a number of litigants in many cases reportedly just takes the law into their own hands," reads the appeal letter.
The residents have asked Mrs. Arroyo to appoint judges to preside the municipal trial courts of Diffun, Cabarroguis and Maddela and the municipal circuit trial courts of Saguday and Nagtipunan.
They requested that the Chief Executive selects ‘with urgency’ from among the nominees submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to fill up the vacancies in the four municipal trial courts.
Lawyer Wilfredo Ambrosio, president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Quirino Chapter, said cases filed in the four trial courts are now piling up.
Ambrosio, a former regional trial court judge, said judges who will be designated will be saddled with many new and old cases which might affect the efficiency of the jurors.
Municipal trial courts have exclusive jurisdiction over cases involving violations of municipal ordinances, offenses punishable with imprisonment not exceeding six years, damage to property, probate proceedings where the value of personal property or estate does not exceed P200,000 and civil actions involving the title to or possession of real property whose value does not exceed P20,000.
Lawyer Abraham Sable, president of Santiago City Lawyers Association, noted that at least 60 percent of the complaints from Quirino province fall within the jurisdiction of the municipal trial courts. — Lito Salatan