Sereno: P336M allocated for CA-Visayas building

CEBU, Philippines - Good news greeted justices and employees of the Court of Appeals-Visayas Station yesterday during their 10th year anniversary after it was announced that over P330 million has been set aside by the Supreme Court for the construction of its own building here in Cebu.

Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno herself assured the CA-Visayas justices and employees that the budget of P336,900,000 has been allocated for the construction of the building at the South Road Properties.

“It is with pleasant and positive hopes for the future that, in fact I affirm to you, waiting for the construction of the Court of Appeals in the Visayas is the amount of P336,900,000 set aside by the Supreme Court from its cumulative savings. So, it will be a reality,” said Sereno, after acknowledging the hard work done by Cebuano former Chief Justi-ces, the late Marcelo Fernan and retired Hilario Davide Jr.

Sereno highlighted the accomplishments of Fernan who provided legislation creating the Visayas station of the CA, as well as of Davide’s success in “moving everything he can to secure a piece of property the Court of Appeals can look forward to and eventually trying to set aside funds from whatever savings the Supreme Court had in order to provide the impetuous for the construction of a Hall of Justice worthy of the work of the great Court of Appeals justices.”

In an interview with the media though, Sereno said that while budget has been allocated for the CA- Visayas office, they still have to discuss the concern of the Palace of Justice building which has not been used since the October earthquake in 2013 that damaged the structure. 

“Pag-uusapan po naming yun, alam niyo naman na nag-set aside na ng pera ang Supreme Court para sa Court of Appeals-Visayas. Naghahanap na po tayo ng pera para desisyonan ang pinakamahusay na paraan para mabigyan ng permanenteng pamamahay ang hukoman para sa Cebu City and other cities na kasama diyan sa Hall of Justice natin. So titingnan natin kung ano ang kaya natin. Yung technical na usapin po, hindi pwedeng matigil kasi kailangan po natin na unang-una, safety ng ating mga kababayan. So hindi po natin ilalagay sa alanganin ang buhay ng sinuman,” said Sereno.

The judges and employees, whose offices were in the Palace of Justice, are now temporarily occupying the IT Qimonda Building at the North Reclamation Area.

The Court of Appeals-Visayas station earlier had a groundbreaking ceremony at the SRP where a portion of lot was donated by the Cebu City government.

Construction of the CA office was later suspended after the SC said that it was looking into the possibility of having all courts, including those previously housed at the Palace of Justice, to be in one location.

Sereno assured yesterday that they will be discussing and determining the best solution.

“Wag po kayong mag-aalala, tinututukan po natin eto,” said Sereno, who met with the justices and judges yesterday after the celebration of the anniversary to discuss the matter.  “I have slated a number of meetings where I will be discussing not only the physical infrastructure problems of the judiciary in your region, including that for the displaced judges from the provincial hall of justice which has been damaged by the earthquake. We will also be discussing with the justices and judges today the vision of the judiciary for the future- the future that will make use of the best talents of the people in information technology so that we can bridge whatever physical distances and inefficiencies that a non-electronic mode of doing things has brought upon us,” the Chief Justice said.

During the celebration yesterday, CA-Cebu Station Executive Justice Gabriel Ingles highlighted the good performance of the CA-Visayas with regards to the number of cases it has disposed from 2004 until the present. 

“CA-Visayas has gone a long way after a decade of rendering justice through the rule of law throughout the entire Visayas,” said Ingles who pointed out that the station has had 18,160 cases for the past 10 years and has disposed 20,276 cases for the same period.

“In six out of 10 years, the station has consistently disposed off more cases than those filed,” Ingles said.  

However, Ingles said that they acknowledge that resolutions dismissing cases on technical grounds are in the same number of cases that are reversed and reinstated to the dockets.  (FREEMAN)