Leonardia files bills creating more courts in Bacolod

CEBU, Philippines - Two bills seeking the creation of more Regional Trial Courts (RTC) and Municipal Trial Courts (MTC) in Bacolod City were filed by city's lone district Rep. Evelio Leonardia last Thursday.

Leonardia filed House Bills 2490 and 2491, both seeking amendments to Batas Pambansa 129 or the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980, to increase the number of courts in his district.

Leonardia, a former mayor of Bacolod for three terms, said he wanted to de-clog the city's courts for faster administration of justice.

HB 2490 provides for three additional RTCs for Bacolod, which would bring the total number of such courts in Negros Occidental to 28, while HB 2491 provides for three more MTCs to increase their number in the city to 10.

Leonardia said, as of June this year, there were 7,491 pending cases in 17 Bacolod RTCs after starting the year with 6,398 cases.

In six months, 317 cases were disposed but 259 were added, said the congressman. This showed a completion rate of 4.9 per cent against an accumulation rate of 14.9, or that more cases are added than are disposed in the RTCs, he said.

Leonardia noted that the MTCs in Bacolod have a completion rate of only 3 per cent, a situation that called for additional courts to de-clog the dockets. As of June, there were 4,563 cases in the MTCs compared to 4,674 cases at the start of this year, he said, adding that 578 cases were disposed of and 467 were added.  (FREEMAN)