47 judges undergo security training

BACOLOD CITY ,Philippines  — Forty-seven selected judges from three regions of the Visayas were in this city this week for a 3-day training on personal security proper handling of firearms, basic self-defense, threats assessment, and courtroom security.

They underwent seminar-workshop at the Grand Regal Hotel from August 16 to 17, and a firearms orientation at Camp Alfredo Montelibano Sr. Firing Range on August 18.

The training-seminar aims to raise the personal security awareness of judges and equip them with knowledge and skills in protecting themselves from threats to their personal safety arising from their judicial work.

The judges, from second-level and first-level courts, were oriented on personal security measures for them to develop understanding of the basic precepts of safety and security precautions.

Among the participants were judiciary officials led by Marina Buzon, executive secretary of the Philippine Judicial Academy and retired Court of Appeals associate justice, Supreme Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez and Jaime Santiago, presiding judge of Manila MeTC - Branch 12-NBI officials and resource persons, led by director Magtanggol Gatdula, and Trial Court judges from the 6th, 7th, and 8th Judicial Regions.

The training-seminar was a joint project of the Supreme Court-Committee on Security, the Philippine Judicial Academy, and the Office of the Court Administrator, in coordination with the NBI.

The project was the 13th of its kind since the signing of the memorandum of agreement on judicial security between the SC and the NBI in January 2008.