Cebu City RTC Executive Judge Soliver Peras (left) shows Supreme Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez one of the new courtrooms on the 3rd floor of the Qimonda I.T. Center.
(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday brought “Judgment Day” to Cebu in an attempt to decongest jails and decrease case load of trial courts.
Some judges handed down the rulings of up to seven cases while some chose to promulgate just one case.
Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez went to the Qimonda I.T. Center yesterday morning to supervise the Judgment Day in the Cebu City courts.
“I want to see the results here in Cebu. We do have a lot of detention prisoners who can already be released. Our aim is really to decongest the jails,” he told reporters.
Cebu Daily News has yet to get the total and official list of convictions and acquittals during the province-wide activity.
“We’re expecting a lot of cases to be resolved today. All the courts were supposed to conduct an inventory of cases prior to today,” Marquez said.
Executive Judge Soliver Peras said over 60 trial courts in Cebu took part in the Judgment Day.
Marquez said congestion in jails in the province has reached 1,500 percent, with the Mandaue City Jail topping the list with 1,020 detainees in a facility designed for 65 inmates.
The jails are filled with those unable to post bail and waiting for trials in court.
Based on data from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), the 160-capacity Lapu-Lapu City Jail has 1,262 inmates while the Cebu City Jail which has a capacity of 819 is being occupied by 2,355 inmates.
Other jail facilities in Cebu have similar congestion rates.
Marquez said the rights of inmates were part of the High Court’s agenda.
Since detention prisoners are not yet convicted, he said they are presumed innocent while their cases are being heard and that they have every right to enjoy the benefits and rights of a person who is not convicted.
Marquez earlier said that the judiciary will form a task force in Cebu to find ways to decongest the jails by speeding up disposition of their criminal cases.
The task force will be led by a Regional Trial Court judge with judges from the Municipal Trial Court , BJMP officials, chief prosecutors, and the Public Attorney’s Office as members.
A similar move was made in Manila which succeeded in freeing up the city jail.
Other programs to decongest jails include the mobile courtrooms called Enhanced Justice on Wheels where hearings are held for inmates ready to enter a “guilty” plea during arraignment and those who have served time in jail longer than their supposed sentence.
Meanwhile, Marquez also inspected Qimonda I.T. Center’s third floor where the trial courts are set to transfer.
Yesterday, RTC’s branch 5, 6, and 7 were given the go signal to transfer from the ground and second floors to the air-conditioned rooms on the third floors.
“They should be in a better condition. We’ve got great facilities for them as well as an air-conditioned courtrooms,” Marquez said.
He said the Supreme Court has yet to determine where to build the new Cebu City courthouse.
“In the meantime, we should not be worried about that anymore because they are in a better location with all the facilities that they would need,” Marquez said.
Cebu City judges and court employees were housed at Qimonda I.T. Center last March, months after the Palace of Justice was deemed “unfit for occupancy” due to the damage caused by the strong earthquake last year.