COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Local sectors were elated with the efforts of Congress to establish one more regional trial court (RTC) here in support of initiatives to address the strong, centuries-old culture of rido or vendetta killings.
Maguindanao First District Rep. Sandra Sema announced on Wednesday that her proposal to create another RTC in the city, through House Bill 5910, has been approved by the House of Representatives committee on appropriations.
Sema said that the House of Representatives committee on justice had earlier studied and endorsed the bill.
“We should be grateful to Congress, in general, and to Rep. Sema, in particular. We are hoping to see a new RTC in Cotabato City,†said Prudencio Asto, a retired Army colonel and former spokesman of the 6th Infantry Division based in Datu Odin town in Maguindanao.
Asto, who studied peace education courses in the context of the so-called “Mindanao Moro problem,†said most cases of "rido" involving local clans can partly be blamed on the slow dispensation of justice by local courts due to so many constraints, including lack of judges.
Even members of the Catholic community were quick to welcome as “positive development†the news about the impending creation of one more RTC here by Congress.
“That is good for the Southern Mindanao peace process, which obviously wants to strengthen the justice system in Moro areas to empower the Moro communities and build public confidence on the judiciary,†commented Oblate priest Eliseo Marcado, Jr., executive director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance.
Sema’s district also covers Cotabato City, which has 37 barangays, mostly plagued with various security problems which local authorities have been trying to effectively address.
Sema said she introduced House Bill 5910 last year in response to clamors from Muslim and Christian communities in the first district of Maguindanao.
Lack of courts and judges have partly been blamed for the worsening peace and order problems in the city, where more than a hundred people have been killed in the last 18 months.
The nagging security issues hounding the city has prompted the city council, chaired by Sema’s spouse, Cotabato City Vice-Mayor Muslimin Sema, to hold two peace summits; first in December last year, and in January 10.
There is a big roadside tarpaulin sign at the Tamontaka area here which states that Cotabato City is a "gunless" and "drug-free" area, an absolute contrast with the wanton attacks by suspected guns for hire, high incidence of motorcycle theft and robbery cases that happen in the area, mostly unsolved.
Sema said Senator Francis Escudero has also filed a counterpart bill at the Senate.
If Sema’s HB 5910 is approved on second and third reading by the House, it shall be transmitted to President Benigno Aquino III for his signature.
Escudero’s bill at the Senate has already been approved, She said.
Even the ARMM’s regional police director, Senior Supt. Noel Delos Reyes, and the commander of the 6th ID, Major Gen. Caesar Ronnie Ordoyo, readily said they are in favor of putting up one more RTC in Cotabato City.
The city presently has two RTCs located inside the 32-hectare ARMM compound here.
A popular judge in the city, Bansawan Ibrahim, said during the first peace and security summit last December that many cases have piled up in the two courts due to lack of judges.
He said there have also been problems on the delivery invitations, to court deliberations, for witnesses and protagonists in and civil and criminal cases due to poor courier services and lack of personnel that can deliver legal communications.
There are detainees at the Cotabato City jail and the Maguindanao provincial jail, located at the P.C. Hill here, that have been incarcerated for so many years now, still awaiting litigation of their cases.