SC looks into complaint of Pampanga detainees over delayed hearings

THE Supreme Court has already started looking into the complaint of the detainees in the Pampanga Provincial Jail over the slow resolution of their cases in courts.

“I have already instructed our legal office to look into the veracity of the allegations,” Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said. His office supervises trial court judges nationwide.

He said the high court saw the need to check on the complaint “more so now that the Supreme Court has come out with the Guidelines on Continuous Trial which is being pilot tested in some first- and second-level courts in the National Capital Judicial Region.”

The detainees, in a three-page handwritten letter sent to Marquez, complained about the “very slow setting of hearings in various courts and judges” handling their criminal cases.

“It (setting of hearings) takes a long time and most of us have almost only one hearing per year… There are those whose cases have ran for 10 to 15 years and still have no resolution up to this day,” said  the handwritten letter in Filipino signed by detainees with pending cases before the Regional Trial Court Branches 41 to 48, 54 and 55.

The detainees said they already called the attention of the Executive Judge Divina Luz Simbulan but their pleas were unanswered.

“We told her about our concerns but she just ignored us,” they said.

“Even if we are detainees, we still hope to start a brand new life with our families. But because of the slow justice system here, our hopes have been destroyed,” they lamented.

“We are hoping for your attention and immediate action, for the sake of our families,” they appealed.

Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno has been targeting speedy resolution of court cases to unclog dockets and decongest jails as part of her judicial reform program.

The SC has also been implementing the Justice on Wheels project for the same purposes.