LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The Senate committee on justice and human rights passed a bill that originated from the House of Representatives that seeks to create an additional branch of the Municipal Trial Court (MTC) to contribute in speeding up the disposal of cases in the municipality.
HB 9476 authored by Rep. Eric Yap stated that the creation of an additional branch of the MTC will help in decongesting the existing branch of its dockets which will translate to the speedy disposal of cases for the benefit of litigants wanting to have immediate court decisions rendered in their cases.
Earlier, the lawmaker brought to the attention of the judiciary the need to create an additional branch of the court in the municipality but this requires appropriate legislation enacted by Congress.
Under the proposed law, the Supreme Court (SC) shall assign the branch number for the newly created branch of the MTC.
The House of Representatives passed on third and final reading HB 9476 and was subsequently transmitted to the Senate for the passage of its counterpart measure before it will be forwarded to the Office of the President for the signature of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr..
He claimed that he will continuously follow-up the matter in the Senate for its passage so that the desired creation of the additional branch of the MTC will be realized the soonest to allow the wheels of justice to roll on the cases that will be referred to it.
Yap pointed out that an additional branch of the MTC should be created in the municipality because of the rapid increase in population resulting to the significant increase in cases being currently handled by the present MTC.
For his part, Mayor Romeo K. Salda said that the creation of an additional court in the municipality will definitely contribute in easing the burden of litigants in having to wait for the resolution of their cases due to the clogged dockets of the present court.
He stipulated that La Trinidad is increasingly urbanized with concomitant increase in court cases thus the need to increase the branches of the court in the municipality.
The municipal chief executive expressed hope that Congress will immediately act on the pending bill to serve justice for litigants. By Dexter A. See
