Justice-on-Wheels returns to Dagupan
SOME inmates at the Dagupan District Jail may expect to be freed soon and join the 8,600 inmates that had been freed after 13,600 civil cases were settled by the Justice-on-Wheels (JOW), a mobile court launched by the Supreme Court since year 2005.
SC Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez who headed the Justice-on-Wheels (JOW) that arrived in Dagupan City on June 22 will look into the cases initially of 20 inmates.
It was only the second time for the JOW to be in Dagupan City since 2007.
Mayor Belen Fernandez welcomed the JOW and expressed hope it could help decongest the already overcrowded Dagupan City jail in Barangay Bonuan Gueset to make the life of the inmates there more comfortable.
In his speech at the city plaza, Court Administrator Marquez said that with the more than 22,000 criminal and civil cases already resolved by the JOW, many court dockets had been unclogged and many jails across the land had been decongested.
He clarified that while inmates are not automatically freed when cases are referred to JOW, 80 percent to 90 percent of them are being freed. The inmates, including complainants in civil cases, still go through the JOW’s regular court hearings.
Twenty inmates of the BJMP jail in Dagupan were brought to the city plaza on June 22 for the hearing of their cases.
The second floor of the City Museum here was transformed into mini-court rooms to hear criminal and administrative cases with the respondents still represented by their respective counsels and the government represented by prosecutors.
The JOW has already visited many cities and municipalities across the country since its launching 11 years ago. It was in Abra, Basilan and some other parts of Mindanao and Cebu before coming to Dagupan City.
Meanwhile, Regional Trial Court (RTC) executive judge Caridad Galvez lauded Mayor Fernandez for agreeing to build a Bahay Pagasa (House of Hope) for youth offenders so that they will not be mixed with the adult offenders in the same jail. (Leonardo Micua)
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