Court operations in Makati suspended

Court operations in Makati City were suspended anew by the Supreme Court Wednesday following the complete shutdown of all normal operations at the Makati City Hall Tuesday after the serving of the second suspension order against Makati mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay.

“In view of the inability to enter Makati city hall premises, work at the Makati trial courts is suspended for today. The Executive Judges and a skeletal force will be on call at the EJOW buses parked near the old Makati city hall for urgent filings,” the high court’s Public Information Office said.

Earlier, the Supreme Court  deployed its Enhanced Justice on Wheels (EJOW) buses near Makati City Hall as a temporary offsite to receive applications for urgent writs in coordination with Deputy Court Administrator Raul Villanueva.

A skeletal force of Makati’s court officials are now on call to attend to urgent appeals, according to Selma Palacios-Alaras, executive judge of Makati.

“Between all the impasse between city hall and DILG, we have to start the proceedings. We would like to provide our end users with the opportunity of peace [by regularizing] some of our proceedings,” she said.

Among the cases filed in the EJOW is a class suit for compensatory damages for human rights violation victims to the tune of $353.6 million against the Marcos estate, now represented by Sen. Marcos “Bongbong” Marcos and Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos.

Loretta Ann Rosales, former Commission on Human Rights chair and petitioner, said they were supposed to file the case Tuesday, but was unable to do so after the Makati courts were closed Tuesday.

“We were barred from entering the Court premises by local authorities, thereby failing to file our petition as scheduled. What this meant was a gross delay of justice as court personnel including judges and public prosecutors were likewise not allowed to enter the premises,” she said.

The lawsuit, she said, was an offshoot of a 1997 class suit seeking recognition and enforcement of the final and executory judgment on a US court order citing the Marcoses in contempt for their refusal to award $2 billion from the Marcos estate to victims of human rights violations during the Martial Law.

In 2013, the Makati Regional Trial Court dismissed the petition as the case was filed on foreign soil two years after the late dictator’s death.

The original decision has been appealed in the Court of Appeals while they await the results of the new lawsuit. With reports from Krixia Subing Subing and Maria Cecilia Pedrocillo, Inquirer interns