KIKO BACKS PUNO'S MOBILE COURTS; CALLS FOR FILLING OF COURT VACANCIES

Senate Majority Leader and judicial reform advocate Kiko Pangilinan today lauded the Supreme Court's (SC) launch of the mobile court program in Metro Manila headed by SC's Chief Justice Reynato Puno, and called for the filling of court vacancies to "address the judicial problems on all fronts."

"If we want to see less criminality, less corruption and less injustices in this country, we need to instill fear and respect for the rule of law. And to do this, we need to show that our justice system punishes swiftly and punishes right," Kiko said.

"We are behind CJ Puno in his thrust to expedite the resolution of cases pending before the courts. We've seen senior citizens still locked up in jail because their cases have been pending for years, that alone is a denial of justice. The mobile court is a step in the right direction towards our goal of unclogging the judiciary and bringing back the fear of the hands of justice," Kiko added.

"As of May 2008, the vancancy in our courts was pegged at 21%. We need to work further on this, encourage more applications for judgship pisitions so that more, if not all, our courts will function and dispense justice more effectively," Kiko ended.