The Supreme Court’s Enhanced Justice on Wheels Program has processed the release of over 300 inmates from the Northern Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan City last Friday.
Court Administrator and SC spokesman Midas Marquez said the inmates were released from detention after all their cases were resolved in just one day of simultaneous hearings under the auspices of EJOW.
“We are bringing the EJOW to different provinces in line with the directive of Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin to expedite the resolution of cases in the lower courts,” Marquez said in an interview.
Aside from the cases of more than 300 inmates who were released from jail, the EJOW also resolved some 200 more cases in Kidapawan City courts during the whole-day event.
The EJOW is a continuing nationwide program of the Supreme Court, which has released some 12,000 inmates and settled more than 10,000 civil cases since it was launched in 2004.
It was set up to expedite the resolution of cases and decongest the country’s jails through simultaneous hearing of cases of indigent inmates that range from as petty as vagrancy and domestic problems to as grave as homicide or murder in areas lacking in judges.
Marquez, who supervises trial courts in the country, personally supervised the EJOW event.
He visited the Northern Cotabato District Jail to check on the condition of the inmates and also presided over a dialog among the judges, prosecutors, public attorneys, the police, jail wardens and private lawyers.
Faculty members from the Philippine Judicial Academy also gave lectures to barangay officials to remind them of their powers, authorities and responsibilities to help them settle disputes so that these will no longer reach the courts.