Pimentel earlier filed a bill doubling the salaries and allowances for judges assigned to Sulu and other equally hazardous areas. In addition, the judges shall be provided security detail of not less than five but not more than seven police officers or members of the armed forces to be paid by government funds. 

Pimentel said “not a single municipal trial court is operating in the 18 municipalities in Sulu” which is entitled to three regional trial courts.

But only one regional trial court is functioning. And the judge prefers to hold sessions in Zamboanga City in the mainland, instead of Jolo, he said. 

There is only one municipal trial court in Sulu proposed for filling up under the existing judiciary organization.

Pimentel said this abnormal situation should not be tolerated because “it has only aggravated the peace and order problems there.”  

“It is about time that we provide the Moro people of Sulu an alternative to the use of the gun as the arbiter of their conflicts because without the courts, then how will they settle their differences?” the senator from Cagayan de Oro said.

He added that the Senate committee on justice and human rights, chaired by Sen. Francis Escudero, and the committee on finance, chaired by Sen. Edgardo Angara, have submitted report s that, among others, seek to create another regional trial court for Sulu even if two existing salas remain vacant for lack of applicants.

He warned that there will be no takers for the position of RTC judges in the province unless incentives are given.  He said the grant of hazard pay for judges in high-risk areas, as already being done, would simply not suffice to address the peculiar problem of lack of working courts in Sulu. 

“If a judge of a municipal court in Sulu will receive the same amount that judges elsewhere in the country occupying the same level of jurisdiction would receive, then nobody would take up the position of municipal court in Sulu, because of the instability of the province and the tendency of people to resort to violence,” he said.

Pimentel expressed dismay that the committee report does not include the creation of new municipal courts in Sulu ostensibly because there are not that many cases to take care of.But Pimentel asked: “Have the judicial authorities even bothered to find out why that is the situation in Sulu?” 

He challenged judicial authorities to put their heads together and look for a way in solving the judicial vacuum in the insurgency-wracked province.

Pimentel also called on the Supreme Court and the Court Administrator “to look into the problem very seriously because without the courts, that contributes to the instability of the country and affects the insurgency, the secessionist movement and the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group.”

“It also makes one wonder if Sulu can legitimately be considered a part of the Republic if it does not have a working judiciary?” Pimentel asked. (MindaNews)

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