SC green-lights courthouse move

Cebu’s courts will finally have a new home at the old Cebu Eastern College building along D. Jakosalem St. after the Supreme Court (SC) green-lighted the proposal to let the local judiciary move out of the quake-damaged Palace of Justice.

While the judges can now heave sighs of relief, the city’s prosecutors are still searching for a new office space.

Lawyer Jade Ponce, executive assistant of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, said the courts need to vacate the Palace of Justice after engineers declared the building unfit for occupancy following the Oct. 15 earthquake.

Ponce, whom Rama designated to attend to judicial concerns, accompanied Executive Judge Soliver Peras, MTCC Judge Francisco Seville and Assistant City Prosecutor Raul Cristoria in a visit to the CEC building yesterday.

The group also went to South Road Properties (SRP) near the Court of Appeals property to survey the area being eyed as a potential site for the new Palace of Justice.

“We are all in agreement on the need to abandon the Palace of Justice. What we are doing now is to look for an alternative site either for a temporary court or a permanent location and facilitate the transfer of court documents and evidences,” Ponce said after their SRP visit.

In the afternoon, Ponce also met with Peras, RTC judges James Stewart Ramon Himalaloan, former MTCC judge Donato Navarro, and former Bacolod congressman Anthony Golez to discuss safety concerns at the Palace of Justice.

The Palace of Justice consists of 22 RTC courts and eight MTCC courts among others. It also accommodates allied offices like the Parole and Probation Office, the Office of the Clerk of Courts, the Public Attorneys’ Office and the Office of the provincial and city prosecutors.

Ponce said that vacating the Palace of Justice and relocating to CEC is not an easy task because of the need to especially secure court archives and documents and evidences of existing cases.

Fiscals homeless

Where do we go?

Cebu City prosecutors asked this as they continue to search for a new office after building owners they approached had refused them for security reasons.

They may end up using container vans for offices, according to Cebu City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon.

The prosecutors have been housed in the Palace of Justice which was declared unsafe for the public.

Sellon yesterday revealed some building owners declined to accommodate them.

“Building owners have apprehensions because their other tenants are apprehensive of prisoners who are presented before the prosecutors,” he said.

Since the entire Palace of Justice was deemed “unfit for occupancy” by the Office of the Building Official, Sellon said city prosecutors have stayed in tents outside the building.

“I think we will be fine here,” he said.

Inquest proceedings, a mandatory procedure following an arrest of a person, are conducted outside the Palace of Justice.

Sellon said they will request for container vans where some prosecutors may stay.

He said the Department of Justice (DOJ) promised to pay for the rental once they can find a building. “The DOJ told us to look for a building and then they will take care of the rentals.”

Sellon is anxious about transferring to another place because all important items, including pieces of evidence, are stored at the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office at the ground floor of the Palace of Justice.

Sellon said city prosecutors used to stay at the building where the Ramos Public Market stands.

In 1989, he said, they transferred to the Palace of Justice which likewise housed the Regional Trial Court (RTC) and Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) among other offices./with STC Intern Freshna Anne Endico