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THE Supreme Court, in line with its continuing effort
to provide the poor more access to justice, on Wednesday literally
brought the wheels of justice to the Manila City Jail.
Chief Justice Reynato Puno
personally spearheaded the move, deploying one “mobile court
room” to look at the plight of the inmates and fast track their
cases.
Puno said that as of Wednesday,
at least 40 inmates were released from the city jail, with a number
of them having finished serving their sentence or were overstaying.
Among those ordered release were
Ronnie Dampin, Aldrich dela Cruz and Rainier John Cruz. Their cases
ranged from illegal possession of deadly weapon to slight physical
injury.
“It will be a continuing
effort. We will not stop until the jail is decongested,” Puno told
The Manila Times.
The Chief Justice said he has
conferred with judges from the lower courts and told them to
expedite the cases of inmates, particularly those who committed
minor crimes and as well as those of minors or young delinquents who
are languishing in the same jail for hardened criminals.
The Manila City Jail is among the
most congested jails in Metro Manila, second only to the Caloocan
City Jail. Records show that the Manila jail has 4,602 male inmates
and 912 females.
Puno said that Wednesday’s
visit to the city jail will be replicated in other areas of Metro
Manila and the whole country.
The Chief Justice also lauded
Mayor Alfredo Lim of Manila and the city government for supporting
the High Court’s program.
He expressed hope that other
local governments will follow Manila’s example so as to hasten the
decongestion of jails and make it more habitable.
Puno explained that court-annexed
mediation like the justice on wheels program is fast gaining
momentum with more cases resolved over the past several years.
Of the 40,729 cases that
underwent mediation in the last six years, 28,563 or 70 percent were
settled.
“This aims to declog courts of
unnecessary and unimportant cases,” he added.
The justice on wheels mobile
court is now being used as a Mobile Philippine Mediation Center for
court-annexed mediation or mediation for cases referred by the
courts.
--William B. Depasupil
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