The House of Representatives has approved eight bills creating 29 more regional trial court and metropolitan trial court salas in different areas in the country.
The bills were approved by 210 congressmen who joined the chamber’s virtual session last Wednesday. Voting was done online.
Approved were House Bills 6323, 6324, 325, 6326, 6327, 6328, 6329, and 6330 that would create 24 new RTC branches and five MTC branches when finally enacted.
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said the creation of the additional court branches would declog existing salas and speed up the dispensation of justice, eventually resulting in less jail congestion
Of the 24 new RTC branches, eight shall be in Caloocan City; one each in La Paz in Abra, Moalboal in Cebu, and Victorias in Negros Occidental; two in Daet and Labo, Camarines Norte; four in Rosario and San Juan, Batangas; and five in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
Additionally, two RTC and five MTC branches in Zamboanga del Norte were created.
The House also unanimously approved on final reading HB 6498, which increases the bed capacity of the Naguilian District Hospital in La Union to 50 beds, and HB 6499, which mandates the increase of the bed capacity of the Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City to 1,000 beds and the upgrade of its professional health care services by authorizing the increase of its medical personnel complement. Both bills were unanimously passed with 218 votes each.
Increasing the bed capacity of the two hospitals complements the House of Representatives’ thrust to raise and improve the capacity of the country’s hospitals to provide medical care to Filipinos, Cayetano said.