‘Judgment Day’ in Leyte’s trial courts

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – Simultaneous with the launching of the Supreme Court’s Enhanced Justice on Wheels in Ormoc City, the trial courts in Leyte will conduct “Judgment Day” on September 3.

The EJOW program was earlier introduced in Tacloban City and Samar provinces with its buses travelling straight from Manila to these places to hold the hearings right in the mobile courts.

This program was intended to provide poor prisoners with increased access to justice as well as relevant social services in the concerned localities, according to Deputy Court Administrator Thelma Bahia.

However, due to the distance of most trial courts from Leyte to Ormoc City, Bahia instructed the executive judges of the regional trial courts in the province to coordinate with all presiding judges in the different branches for the simultaneous ‘Judgment Day’ on this day.

Bahia said that, to give full meaning to the program, all trial courts in Leyte would be required to hear cases in their respective salas, involving promulgation of decisions that would result in the acquittal and release of the accused and those with mediation proceedings for purposes of settlement between party-litigants.

RTC Tacloban Executive Judge Alphinor Serrano already met with clerks of courts of various branches to remind them of the need to calendar cases on September 3 for the needed release of the accused from detention.

Besides the seven branches in RTC-Tacloban, this court has administrative and appellate jurisdiction over the municipal trial courts in the towns of Alang-Alang, Babatngon, Dulag, Jaro, Palo, Pastrana, Sta. Fe, Tanauan and Tolosa, most of which are located along the Leyte coastline where the courts where destroyed by super typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

The massive destruction of offices, computer equipment and case records in RTC-Tacloban was the reason for the American Bar Association and the United States Agency for International Development to include the city in their pilot of the ABA-Rule of Law Initiative-USAID e-court and automated hearing programs.

The automated hearing was tested at Branch 7 of the RTC-Tacloban last June, and it resulted in the speedy release of detained accused whose cases were dismissed by the court, either due to the disinterest of the complainant or that the accused has been detained for time longer than the imposable sentence if found guilty.

The court order dismissing the cases was served to counsels and litigants in open court and the order of release was received by the accused and jail escort immediately after the case was heard.

RTC-Tacloban Branch 7 Assisting Judge Yolanda Dagandan saw to it that orders would be served immediately after these are dictated in open court, unless electricity outage restrains the court to do so.

Presiding Judge Crisologo Bitas, who is now on sick leave, has done the same procedures in accordance with the principles behind the automated hearing of the Supreme Court, the ABA-ROLI and USAID.

With the full implementation of the EJOW and the AH programs of the Supreme Court, decongestion of case loads and prisoners in jails is now anticipated.