Learning never ends, even outside the classroom.
For five University of Cebu (UC) third-year law students, the best way to spend summer while awaiting internship is to practice the skills they learned in school by offering free legal consultation to overstaying inmates of the provincial jail.
Their efforts came on the heels of the apparent suicide of Australian Hilton Munro,47 inside his isolation room at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC). Munro was allegedly depressed over the slow progress of his case.
“What we are trying to see is where we can help. As law students we cannot give the final say, but we check on the inmates’ records and make recommendations,” said Marco Angelo Toral, only child of Capitol security consultant on jail matters Marco Toral.
Aside from Toral, other volunteers are Maureen Duran, Hynch Mendoza, Christian Elumba and Nichole Yballe.
READ: Social welfare officers, law students tapped to help depressed inmates
They have been visiting the provincial jail in Barangay Kalunasan three to four times a week since April 14 as part of their advocacy for the right to speedy trial. The group spends two to three hours a day reviewing the cases of around 35 inmates.
“What we do at the end of the week is compile the data that we gathered and submit recommendations for follow-up,” said Toral.
He noted that a case could be postponed for a year for failure of the complainant or lawyer to show up in court.
He cited a detainee, whose case carries a prison sentence of only 12 years but who has been jailed for 18 years now.
READ: After death of Aussie accused of child sex crime, taxi driver has ‘no lawyer’
“I understand that the PAO (Public Attorney’s Office) cannot respond to everyone. Our aim is to help them as well as the inmates since they also are handling a lot of cases,” said Toral.
“By virtue of our recommendation, at least we lessen the burden they are carrying but, of course, their lawyers have the final say,” he added.
CONFUSED
Among those who queued for consultation last Friday was 50-year-old Vincente Aliñabo, a father of 10 from Barili town in southern Cebu. He suffers from epilepsy, he said to explain his bruises at the time of the interview.
He and two others, including his son, were recently sentenced to eight to 14 years in jail for murder. They have been in jail for the past 10 years.
“Naglibog na ko karon kay mag-pulo na ko ka tuig diri sa prisohan unya wa kaayo mi kasabot kung counted na ba to among pulo ka tuig or balik mi sa uno hangtud katorse ka tuig? (I’m confused. Were the 10 years that we spent in jail credited against our sentence or should we serve another eight to 14 years?,” he told CDN.
Toral and his friends have vowed to continue providing legal consultation to the inmates even during their internship.
“We can do it. We will do as much as we can,” said Toral.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
