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Friday, March 29, 2024

Disasters spark call for Judiciary’s automation

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Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno on Monday pushed for the automation of the judiciary to preserve the integrity of court records and ensure that these data and pieces of evidence are protected from man-made or natural calamities.

Sereno made the move following the fire that gutted the Cagayan de Oro City Hall of Justice building where a court utility worker and a security guard were killed on Friday. .

She said the automation of the court systems would ensure that court records are preserved even when similar disaster struck, including storms such as the super typhoon Yolanda that destroyed the hall of justice building in Tacloban City.

“The Judiciary now has two clusters of trial courts whose records are being reconstructed piece by piece because of wholesale destruction, in Tacloban and in Cagayan de Oro cities. Many pieces of evidence are completely lost. This fact makes more urgent the need to fully automate the court systems nationwide,” Sereno said  in a statement posted on the high court’s Twitter account.

The country’s first female chief justice stressed the high court would ask Congress to fund the digitization project although she did not mention the cost.

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“This is a deeper step in automation, than our present plans and funds allow. It also makes it imperative that a more secure and scientific system of preserving evidence be devised,” Sereno stressed.

Meanwhile, Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, along with Deputy Court Administrator Jenny Lind Aldecoa-Delorino and Sereno’s Chief of Staff, Honey Oliveros-arrived Monday in Cagayan de Oro City to meet with the judges and court employees as well as to inspect the site where the courts will temporarily hold office and hearings.

“The three court officials from Manila will visit the site of the burned down building, inspect the temporary site by the Executive Judges of Cagayan de Oro, and then meet with the judges. Appropriate advice and instructions to all the relevant court employees, litigants and counsels, will be timely issued,” Sereno said adding that she is also in touch with the executive judge of the Cagayan de Oro RTC.

Sereno also assured that assistance will be extended to the family of utility worker, Jepry Uban and building security guard, Benjamin Buna who perished in the fire.

She also asked the RTC judges in Cagayan de Oro to continue their work despite the tragedy even as she appealed to all those who have cases pending in the courts and their lawyers to be patient.

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