300 prisoners freed from Cotabato jail
In one day of simultaneous hearings last Friday, about 300 detention prisoners in the district jail of North Cotabato were released through the Enhanced Justice on Wheels program of the Supreme Court.
Court Administrator and SC spokesperson Jose Midas P. Marquez said that EJoW in North Cotabato “was held in line with the directive of Chief Justice Lucas P. Bersamin to expedite resolution of cases in the lower courts.”
Aside from the release of about 300 inmates, EJoW also resolved more than 200 cases in Kidapawan City, Marquez said.
Earlier last September, more than 80 prisoners in La Union and Benguet were released from jail through EJoW.
Marquez, who had been highly recommended by the SC to the post that would be vacated on Jan. 5, 2019 by SC Associate Justice Noel G. Tijam, personally supervised the EJoW in North Cotabato.
The simultaneous hearings were conducted by trial court judges in coordination with government and private prosecutors, the police, and jail wardens.
Marquez said there were also lectures from representatives of the Philippine Judicial Academy for barangay officials on their powers, authorities, and responsibilities in the settlement of disputes within their level to help minimize the filing of cases before the courts.
Launched in 2004, the target of EJoW, then called Justice on Wheels, are poor prisoners whose cases range from as petty as vagrancy and domestic problems to as serious as homicide or murder in places where there is lack of judges or where the jails are congested.
With the immediate resolution of the cases, some detention prisoners are released, thereby decongesting not only the courts’ docket but also the cramped jails in the country, Marquez said.
EJoW records showed that about 12,000 inmates had been released through the project and more than 10,000 civil disputes settled. (Rey