LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—The Supreme Court’s Justice on Wheels motored to this province for the first time last week, processing cases that led to the release of 52 detainees.
“What could have been an arduous process which usually takes time to fully resolve has been accomplished 10 times faster with the mobile court,” said Jose Midas Marquez, the SC court administrator and spokesperson.
The tribunal’s Enhanced Justice on Wheels (Ejow) program heard 132 cases, promulgated 43 suits, and dismissed 79 others filed against detainees from jails in the towns of Lingayen and Burgos and the cities of Alaminos, San Carlos and Dagupan.
Deputy Court Administrator Raul Villanueva said it was the first time for the program to reach Pangasinan. Dagupan City was the mobile court’s last stop for 2011.
Nine SC mobile court buses have toured the provinces since 2003.
Designed to speed up court cases and decongest provincial jails, the Ejow program is the “primary social reform activity of the Supreme Court to increase [the impact of] justice for the poor,” said Villanueva.
The first detainee to be released had been in jail for four months. He was handed a two-month jail term but he was immediately released since he had served his sentence during detention.
Villanueva said the Ejow program is a collaboration of the courts including the prosecutors and jail administrators, and the police.
He said the absence of the accused or accuser, the prosecutor, and even the public attorney had been one of the reasons raised to explain slow court processes. “In justice on wheels, we make sure that all parties are present,” he added.
“This justice on wheels program makes it possible to dismiss or pass decisions on cases from at least four towns in just one day,” said Judge Grace Gliceria de Vera of San Carlos City. De Vera dismissed four cases on Thursday. Marla Viray, Inquirer Northern Luzon