By Jelly F. Musico
MANILA, March 25 (PNA) — Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III on Tuesday proposed the holding of a judicial summit to harmonize and speed up the passage of reforms bills aimed at improving the justice system in the country.
”A judicial summit could hold the key to harmonizing and speeding up the passage of reform bills aimed at improving the justice system, especially clearing clogged court dockets that are a major cause of long delays before decisions are made,” Pimentel said.
He noted that 13 bills are pending before the Senate committee on justice and human rights, four of them proposing amendments to Batas Pambansa No. 129 or the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980.
”That includes, among others, a move to restore back to the Supreme Court, final decisions, orders or resolutions of the Civil Service Commission from the Court of Appeals,” he said.
The other proposed measures call for the adoption of a uniform system of preliminary investigation by provincial and city prosecutors and their assistants, and by state attorneys and their assistants; appointment of a special and independent prosecutor to handle impeachable cases; establishment of the office of inspector general to enhance transparency and ethics in the judiciary; a ban on the reappointment of a regular member of the Judicial and Bar Council who has already served the full term; and an increase in the budget of the Board of Claims.
Pimentel recently conducted hearings on the bills with the committees of social justice, welfare and rural development and finance during which it was proposed to hold a judicial summit to address the backlog of cases and issues on temporary restraining orders that have hampered resolutions of high-profile cases like those in big-time smuggling.
He said the snail-paced resolution of cases continue to bug the system because of lack of court personnel and the tedious litigation process that a bill authored by Sen. Antonio Trillanes seeks to grant the Supreme Court the power to reassign trial court judges to other branches of the same level, thereby amending Sections 17, 28, 30 and 31 of BP 129.
Senate President Franklin Drilon has also filed Senate Bill No. 470 to introduce several amendments to the Sandiganbayan law, among them, allowing one justice to receive evidence in place of the current system which requires the presence of three justices in a division.
Other measures include Senate Bill 472 by Sen. Teofisto Guingona to streamline the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan and increase the number of its associate justices and divisions; SB 396 by Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago to expedite the prosecution by the Ombudsman of cases recommended by Congress; SB 1148 by Sen. Trillanes to allow private lawyers to act as prosecutors on behalf of the Ombudsman; SB 605, 1606, 1725 and 1162, authored by Sen. Francis Escudero, Sen. Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, and Sen. Trillanes, respectively, to provide a fixed percentage of the value of forfeited properties in corruption cases as additional funds for the Ombudsman. (PNA)