ROUGH CUTS | Sen. Bong Go’s very laudable bill

WE read yesterday a Facebook post of our friend retired communications firm executive and journalist Serafin “Jun” Ledesma about Davaoeno Senator Christopher “Bong” Go filing a bill in the Senate that seeks to increase the number of Divisions of the country’s Court of Appeals (CA). This is in addition to the many other Senate bills he introduced recently that are still pending deliberation by the appropriate committees of the Upper House.

     Senator Go’s bill on the expansion of the CA divisions is one which hit the nail right on the head. As of now, other than those Divisions based in the Capital Region we only knew of two others based outside the national center. These are the ones based in Cagayan de Oro City (5th Division) and the one based in Cebu City which division number we are not familiar with.

     In Senator Go’s explanatory note on the bill he mentioned that it is primordial that anyone who seeks justice has the burning desire that it be dispensed with the fastest possible. After all “Justice delayed is justice denied.” There is nothing we can argue against it. This is primarily because even in seeking justice the one who has the resources – and connection of course – are likely to have the advantage.

     Thus, for any lowly justice seeker who gets what he wanted in the lower courts the decision of which is appealed by the other party to the next higher court, the likelihood is that the fate of his or her case will totally be dependent on the sense of fairness of those manning the next higher level court. Imagine the expenses that will be incurred by either party from the time the case is appealed up to the time that it is resolved. So if the parties to the appealed decision are residents of Davao City they have to reckon with the possibility of either going to Cagayan de Oro or Cebu City should there be necessity.

     Now if Senator Go’s bill will be passed by the Senate and a corresponding bill be sponsored in the House of Representatives and eventually approved and the reconciled version signed by the President into law, then we can be certain that one of the newly created divisions will be based in Davao City, Iloilo and several other major regional centers in the country.

    We could only imagine how much financial burden will the additional CA Divisions relieve the parties to the appealed case.

     We have no doubt that Go’s bill is a welcome development long hoped for by lawyers and their clients.

     The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) must strongly manifest its support to the bill because in the end it is its members who will share the benefits with their clients once the bill becomes a law.

     Of course it is a different story if the appeal is done by a moneyed party who feel aggrieved. Any scheming lawyer can think of how to milk him or her. And we mean “scheming” lawyers; not the ones with their hearts for their clients who are presumed innocent until proven otherwise by the court.

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     The other day, Tuesday, the second day of the in-person classes for school year 2022-2023 complaints about classroom lack were still the mean meat of both national and local news.

     In Davao City for example the problem of no classrooms was more vocally expressed by teachers and students of the Alambre National Agricultural High School in Toril district.  We could not help but be aghast at the actuations of certain person putting a claim on a piece of land where a school building for the said high school was to have been constructed. The claim by that private individual to a piece of land which probably is a government domain resulted to the non-construction of the school building which project is already funded by the national government.

     Hence, during the whole of the current school year the students of the agricultural school will have to endure the noise while holding classes inside the barangay covered court. The classes of various grade levels are separated only by back-to-back blackboards that easily allow the noise from each class to be heard by each other.

     One solution adopted by the teachers to prevent distraction by the noise is for the classes to agree on having activities that require discussions by the teachers and students not to be done at the same time. That is if the class at the other side of the board will do oral recitations, the one at the other side does written examination or silent reading.

     And worst, is that when the sun shines the whole day the temperature in the covered court also rises. When strong rains dominate the day coupled with a bit gusty wind the water enters the open sides of the court leaving the children wet.  Water rivulets also form on the gymnasium floor.

     For now, according to the teachers of the agricultural high school in Alambre, they have to “squat” in some rooms of the elementary school if only to accommodate the increasing enrollees.   

     Cannot the local government of the city, or any other national agencies with authority on land ownership determination help in resolving the conflicting claim on the site intended for the secondary school building?

     Or, will they just tolerate the persistence of the problem to the detriment of the learners in that area?

                                                                                

     

       

ROUGH CUTS | Sen. Bong Go’s very laudable bill
Source: Viral Media Philippines