Judge bats for abolition of filing fees
IF this judge can have his way, he would not want to the practice of collecting filing fees from litigants stopped and abolished.
Tayug Trial Court Branch 51 Judge Ulysses Butuyan said he believes the charging of such fees is a violation of the Constitution that specifically prescribed that the public must have “free access to courts.”
“It seems that filing fees have been collected from litigants because the law has allowed the Supreme Court to do it,” he said during the Media in Action forum of the Pangasinan Press Club at the Pedrito’s Restaurant here.
“I don’t think that the Supreme Court has unilaterally decided on the issue of collecting filing fees,” Butuyan, president of the Philippine Judges Association-Pangasinan Chapter, added.
The fees are used to fund the activities of the judiciary.
He said the government must instead provide the budget for the judiciary to make free access to court a reality.
“Wala no po sanang magbayad para magpunta sa husgado. Maliban lang sa appearance fee ng abugado,” he stressed. (PIA Pangasinan)
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