By Joann Santiago
MANILA, April 21 (PNA) — Cases lodged at the Sandiganbayan are now expected to be acted on faster after President Benigno Aquino III signed into law Republic Act (RA) 10660, which amended and strengthened Sandiganbayan’s function and structure.
In a briefing Tuesday, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said RA 10660, otherwise known as an Act Strengthening Further for Functional and Structural Organization of the Sandiganbayan Further Amending Presidential Decree No. 1606 as Amended and Appropriating Funds Therefore, increased the anti-graft court’s divisions from five to seven.
Also, the amended law, which Aquino signed on April 16, 2015, lowered the number of justices to two from three for a session in each division to have a quorum.
Valte said the two additional divisions, which will still have three justices each, will surely unload cases being handled by the three current divisions.
” And that, hopefully, will result in the faster disposition of cases that are pending before the Sandiganbayan,” she said.
The amended law also states that budget for the hiring of additional justices and staff will come from the special court’s current appropriation.
Valte said there are still no appointments for the newly-opened positions but said the President will immediately consider people once a shortlist have been submitted to him.
Relatively, the President signed on April 6, 2015 the appointment papers of 105 individuals, most of whom are assigned in various courts all over the country. (PNA)