Supreme Court Associate Justice Midas Marquez. (File photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court is finalizing the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Office of the Judiciary Marshals (OJM), which will be primarily responsible for the security, safety and protection of judiciary personnel.
Associate Justice Midas Marquez said on Wednesday that once the IRR is in place, they would start screening for the qualified chief marshal and three deputies for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
“Hopefully they’ll get appointed by first quarter next year … and then from there we’ll establish the different divisions,” Marquez said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.
According to him, the Supreme Court has allotted P50 million for the OJM’s operations.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11691, or the Judiciary Marshals Act, in April.
Currently, Marquez said the high court is coordinating with the Philippine National Police to provide security to judges under threat.
“We don’t have existing marshals. So right now, if there are judges under threat, we coordinate with the PNP or we also give them our own security within the Supreme Court,” he said.
Over 30 judges threatened
Once the OJM starts its operations next year, Marquez said they will prioritize judges under threat.
“Initially, we may have few judiciary marshals … because we monitor the judges under threat, so we will give them judiciary marshals, each one of them,” he added.
Marquez also said that the OJM was also meant to look into the unsolved killings of over 30 judges.
“Once we are able to create, even at the initial creation of the Office of the Judiciary Marshals and once we already have investigators, we will have these killings looked into. Right now, I think we have around 33 or 34 judges killed while in service,” he said, adding that only about five of these cases were resolved.
“We will request the judiciary marshals to review all the cases of these judges,” he added.