Separate circuit criminal courts pushed for drug cases

The House of Representatives subcommittee on judicial reforms on Wednesday tackled a bill filed by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez seeking to revive the circuit criminal courts that would try cases on crimes against person, property and drugs.

During the hearing of the subcommittee under the House justice committee, chairperson Leyte Rep. Vicente “Ching” Veloso also pushed for the need to create separate criminal courts for crimes against person and property, and drug offenses.

“There is a need for criminal courts, and mind you, I can’t understand the society we have, that more causes of actions were created every month on the criminal side of cases than on the civil side,” Veloso, a former justice at the Court of Appeals, said during the hearing.

Veloso said he would propose foregoing with the preliminary investigation for smaller crimes punishable with a penalty of less than six years imprisonment, so that court may proceed with trial until conviction or acquittal.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, an ally of President Rodrigo Duterte, said House leaders filed the bill in a bid to declog the courts hearing numerous cases of drugs.

According to House Bill No. 4 filed by Speaker Alvarez and majority floor leader Rudy Fariñas, the House leaders pushed for the revival of the circuit criminal courts, which were abolished in 1981 after the reorganization of the judiciary devolved their jurisdiction to the first level and regional trial Courts.

The circuit criminal courts then had the jurisdiction over crimes punishable by life imprisonment or death penalty.

Alvarez in his bill said there was a need to revive the circuit criminal courts to improve the criminal justice system.

“With a heightened sense of today’s criminal justice system and criminal statistics, as well as an outlook for the future’s peace and order, there is a need to intensify measures to address this concern,” the bill read.

The bill proposed that a circuit criminal court be created in each of the 12 judicial regions to have jurisdiction over crimes against person and property punishable by death or life imprisonment, and violations of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

The bill said that for the speedy disposition of cases, the trial in the criminal courts would be continuous until terminated, and that judgment would be rendered within 30 days from the time the case was submitted for decision.

During the hearing, Alma Corazon Poncia of the Supreme Court management office told the lawmakers that the Supreme Court had designated special courts to handle drug cases, and that all regional trial courts had been raffled off with drug-related charges to ensure speedy disposition of the cases.

Poncia said as of August 2016, the Supreme Court had tallied over 52,500 drug cases nationwide pending before the regional trial courts, of which 24,193 are within the National Capital Region.

Veloso said he was alarmed at the backlog of criminal cases in the court.

“It’s really alarming that we have this number of cases as backlogs in our various RTCs,” Veloso said.