The Regional Trial Court Executive Judge in Negros Oriental has directed the RTCs to expedite the cases against detainees who are languishing in jail for more than five years.
RTC Executive Judge Gerardo Paguio Jr. issued the memorandums in support of the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign through the expeditious and judicious completion of cases in the different regional trial courts in the province.
A report of the city jail warden, Jail Senior Insp. Rolly Bandeling, showed more than 32 male detainees have cases pending for five to 10 years, mostly involving cases for violation of RA 9165 otherwise known as the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
At the women’s dormitory, 13 have cases have remained pending for more than five years.
RTC Branch 30 Presiding Judge Rafael Crescencio Tan Jr. said on Thursday it is a sad fact that some of these inmates may be acquitted after a long period of detention.
He suggested that defense lawyers may file motions for the dismissal of their cases on the ground of delay in the resolution of such cases, or for failure to prosecute within a reasonable length of time.
Meanwhile, two residents of barangay Calindagan were sentenced to suffer a penalty of life imprisonment, after they were found guilty beyond reasonable doubt for selling a prohibited drug in separate buy-bust operations.
Judge Tan meted the stiff prison term to both Emelie Jumalon Cantila, and Jan Mark Viliran, and fined them P500,000 each.
The two were the first to be sentenced this year after hearings of the cases were terminated in December last year.
The Court brushed aside their claim that the evidence confiscated from them were ‘planted’ by the police, as they did not file a complaint against the police officers.
Tan reported that in 2016, his sala disposed of 81 cases which resulted in the conviction of 74 accused, seven acquittals and six dismissals, or a conviction rate of 91 percent.
He observed that the second semester of 2016 saw an upsurge of drugs cases filed almost doubling that of the first semester resulting in a total of 184 newly-filed cases for the year. RTC Branch 30 has now 221 cases pending as of December 31, 2016. (JFP/JG)
