THE Integrated Bar of the Philippines – Cebu City chapter lauded the Department of Justice order stopping the collection of filing fees on criminal cases filed before the prosecution offices.
In its Resolution No. 31-2012, the IBP Cebu City chapter led by its president Earl Bonachita said the decision was long overdue.
“The recent move of the DOJ to stop the filing is long awaited by the trial practitioners in particular, and the public in general, as the said collection of filing fees somehow raised the issue of ‘denial of access to justice’ especially for poor litigants,” the lawyers’ group said.
Copies of the IBP Cebu City chapter resolution will be sent to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, the IBP national officials, Cebu City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon and Cebu Provincial Prosecutor Pepita Jane Petralba.
De Lima issued a circular which revoked a 2004 order authorizing the collection of filing fees in criminal complaints and ordered “all assessment clerks and collection officers to cease and desist from assessing and collecting legal fees.”
The DOJ explained that filing fees need not be collected anymore since the “salary of prosecutors had been increased 100 percent with the implementation of the Salary Standardization Law.”
Proceeds from filing fees were alllocated as “special allowances” to prosecutors to augment their pay and avoid losing them to the lucrative private law practice. /Reporter Ador Vincent S. Mayol