More Special Drug Courts Needed In Davao City

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 12 Jun) – A Filipino judge on Tuesday reiterated calls by many members of the judiciary for the creation of more special courts that will resolve dozens of pending drug cases in the southern city of Davao.

Judge Renato Fuentes, of the Regional Trial Court Branch 17, said as much as P2 million is needed to pay salaries of at least 12 employees and other expenses in order to establish a new drug court.

Fuentes said they had long clamored for the establishment of more drug courts from Philippine Congress, but their plea had fall on deaf ears.

"Cebu has three drug courts and Cagayan de Oro has 2 and Metro Manila have 4 while Davao has only one despite the fact that the city is much bigger than those areas," Fuentes told reporters.

He said Congress needs to prioritize the need to out up special courts in Davao City.

"The lack of additional special drug courts in the city is showing that Congress has little concern to the Supreme Court which has only one percent of the national budget compared to other government agencies," Fuentes said.

”To resolve the lack of special drug courts in many areas of the country, particularly here in Davao City, Congress needs to increase the budget of the High Court to ten percent of the national budget it can address all these problems,” he said. (Romy Bwaga)

Finally, Special Courts On Extra-Judicial Killings...

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 28 Feb) - The Supreme Court has started selecting the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in the Philippines that will hear and decide pending murder cases involving extra-judicial and political killings in the country.

SC administrator Christopher Lock issued Order 14-0755 compelling courtrooms in the country to inform the High Court on the pending charges involving extra-judicial and political killings.

Lock said they will select which courtroom will handle cases involving extra-judicial and political killings based on the data to be provided by these RTC branches.

The administrator gave the judges in the country until Thursday to send the information needed by the High Tribunal.

Militant groups said more than 800 mostly political activists were killed since 2001 and they accused government soldiers as behind most of these murders. The Armed Forces of the Philippines denied the accusations. (Romy Bwaga)