From Palace of Justice to justice in tents!

In two days, it will be four months since the dreaded October 15th earthquake struck us here in Cebu City and much of Bohol Province. I will never forget that early morning of Oct.15th as I had just finished my breakfast and was drinking water in my balcony when the earth started to shake. As the earth began shaking, I knew that an earthquake was happening, but as I held on to the railing of my balcony, I literally held on to my life because the shaking was nothing that we've ever experienced before. It was what we call the "Big One" at 7.2 in the Richter Scale.

While Bohol got the brunt of that earthquake, Cebu City also got its share where the most notable was the destruction of the belfry of the iconic Sto. Niño de Cebu Basilica del Minore. When I saw the broken belfry, I was nearly in tears that the Sto. Niño church may have withstood centuries was now broken. Many other buildings in Metro Cebu suffered damages.

A day after the earthquake, I had a hearing (this is my only court case in my 27 years as a journalist) in court on a libel case and I was surprised that the Palace of Justice was shut down due to numerous cracks on the edifice. I haven't returned since that time and yesterday was the resumption of this 7-year-old court case and it was a huge surprise to find out that all the branches of our courts of law are now held on flimsy tents… the very kind that you often use for funerals. Thankfully, it did not rain yesterday otherwise we would have all been drenched including the judge!

This brings us to ask -- what's wrong with the Palace of Justice? We know enough that this building was affected by the earthquake but what I would like to know is, being a government building, whether it was due to shortcuts in the construction. Remember this building was done during the Marcos years, but it remained unfinished until the time when Senate Pres. Franklin Drilon became Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary. So may we know if this edifice cracked because of the use of inferior materials?

Mind you, just across the street from the Palace of Justice is the Legislative Building that was constructed by Dakay Construction. I checked and found out that this building withstood the 7.2 magnitude earthquake. So why is the Palace of Justice unusable? While it did not crumble, but just the same it is unusable today. At this point, we'd also like to know what the Supreme Court have decided on what to do with the Palace of Justice?

It's been nearly four months now that Justice is being served so uncomfortably! Although there was nothing really comfortable about the courtrooms of the old Palace of Justice when it was still in use. But today's Justice inside the tents is what I would call a worse case scenario and I dare challenge the Judiciary to do something about this problem as soon as possible because what we have today is no longer a Palace of Justice -- not even those so-called "Justice on Wheels" which are on buses -- what we have here today are tents of Justice! What a switch!

Surely the Judiciary can find empty buildings that are not being rented in Cebu which can serve as our temporary courts. But then a lawyer friend of mine whispered this into my ear: Which building owner would dare sign a lease contract with the Supreme Court, when we know that government agencies do not pay the rent on time? When that happens, can you haul the Supreme Court to court?

At this point, we can only make a plea to the Judiciary to show some transparency, on whether the Palace of Justice cracked because the contractor used inferior materials and above all, can we sort of come up with a timetable as to when the Judiciary will move its courts out of those ugly tents? If you visited our courts today, they really look like victims or refugees of the October 15th earthquake.

As I've been saying in the past, we Cebuanos should no longer be contended with the old Cebu that we used to know. We must progress together as a people. But what we are seeing that is happening in the Judiciary today is a case of retrogression. When the rains come, it halts the dispensation of Justice and that my friends is justice denied!

*  *  *

Suddenly, former Rep. Pablo Garcia literally threw a monkey wrench at the City of Cebu when he pointed out that no one can sell the South Road Properties (SRP) unless it gets the nod of Congress or if the President of the Philippines signs the contract. Out of the blue, this question has brought political rivals Mayor Michael Rama and former Mayor Tomas Osmeña on the same side of the argument that they can sell the SRP lots. But if I know Pabling Garcia, he has a legal mind and wouldn't put out this issue unless he knows that our laws back him up. So let's first settle this issue at hand.

*  *  *

Email: [email protected].