Court workers undergo counseling in wake of rampage

FOR three hours, 13 employees of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) Branch 6 underwent a debriefing to help them cope with the shock of witnessing the Jan. 22 shooting rampage that claimed three lives.

Fr. Monico Catubig, a priest of the Cebu Archdiocese, spearheaded the debriefing held inside the MTCC Branch 6 courtroom last Monday.

Kim Solon, the designated spokesman of the employees, said the debriefing was “very helpful.”

“We were asked to lift up to the Lord all our anxieties and animosities,” he said.

Solon, officer in charge of MTCC Branch 6, was inside the staff room when Canadian John Pope shot down lawyer Juvian Achas and Dr. Rene Rafols.

Solon said the debriefing conducted by Fr. Catubig was like a recollection.

“At first, Fr. Catubig talked about the psychological, emotional, and intellectual aspects of man. He also discussed about different types of personality,” he said.

The priest, he said, then asked each of them how the shooting incident affected them.

“Each one us spoke. Some were emotional. They cried,” Solon recounted.

He said the priest then invited them to meditate and to entrust everthing to the Lord. “The procedure seemed like an outlet to us,” Solon said,.

Each time they enter the courtroom, Solon said they could not help but remember the gruesome death of Achas and Rafols. “We could really recall what transpired,” he said.

Thus far, Solon said they haven’t experienced any unusual event inside the MTCC Branch 6 since the incident happened.

A novena Mass for the eternal repose of the victims was held inside MTCC Branch 6.

The last novena Mass will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow. The hearing at MTCC Branch 6 finished past 12 noon yesterday.

Staff members gave a bouquet of flowers to Judge Pamela Baring-Uy who celebrated her birthday yesterday. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol