Modernization of lower courts crucial — Tulfo

Senator Raffy Tulfo is backing the Supreme Court's plan to modernize its lower courts to expedite all court transactions nationwide.

In a Senate budget deliberation of the Department of Justice and its attached agencies on Monday, Tulfo said the lower courts must be independent from other government bodies, specifically with local government units.

"Our Judiciary being the third constitutional branch of the government serves a distinct purpose that renders our work here in the legislative more effective especially to the people to whom our laws are being applied," Tulfo relayed to his colleagues during a manifestation.

Tulfo stressed that "an independent judiciary is crucial in the delivery of justice, where they are not beholden to anyone."

"If our courts can sustain itself independently of other bodies such as the LGUs, it would shield them from influence in the handling of cases that are brought before them. Our Judiciary needs its independence when it comes to their budget," he continued.

Tulfo said the modernization of the lower courts includes the improvement of its physical infrastructures and the development of an interconnected and digitalized system across all other courts nationwide.

"The infrastructure of our lower courts deserves our support because it gives these institutions their dignity," he said, lamenting the "terrible conditions" of some physical lower courts in the country.

"I would also like to give my support for the modernization plan or the innovation plan of the Supreme Court for our lower courts because, during the pandemic, we saw how digitalized process expedited matters," Tulfo said.

He noted that judiciary workers should have access to their own official communication gadgets and allowances so they can better communicate and inform clients about the status of their court cases.

"If they all have official mobile numbers that have enough data, they could probably send immediately to the parties pag hindi tuloy ang kaso (if cases are not pushed through)," he stressed, citing that early information on the postponement of cases would help litigants to save money for the next hearings.

Tulfo is also urging his colleagues to continue providing hazard pay to judges and other judiciary workers "considering the nature of their jobs" putting their lives at risk.

"Seriously, I urge my dear colleagues that we give back this small amount of 221.8 million hazard pay for our lower court judges. It goes into the morale of our judges," he underscored.

Creation of family courts

Tulfo, on the other hand, raised the unreleased P537-million budget for the creation of family courts in regions of Cagayan Valley (Region 2), Eastern Visayas (Region 8), Northern Mindanao (Region 10), and Soccsksargen Region 10.

He cited the need to push the family courts nationwide in order to effectively address the cases of Violence Against Women and Their Children, specifically the increasing cases of rape, child abuse and human trafficking.

"Family courts also handle all cases handling children including drugs cases, adoption, annulment, guardianship, custody, acts of lasciviousness, support and legal separation," he lamented.

There are 2,397 family court cases in Cagayan Valley, 762 in Eastern Visayas, 2,381 in Northern Mindanao, and Soccksargen has 1,310 which are being handled by designated Regional Trial Courts.

Tulfo said RTCs are overburdened by such cases "when it should be handled by Family Courts that could not be opened because they have no budget allocation."