Courtroom shortage? Mobile courts may be an answer

MANILA, Philippines - The Manila City government seemed to have found a creative way to solve its problem on the lack of courtrooms - by turning container vans into chambers of justice. Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim on Friday inaugurated two new mobile courtrooms fashioned out of container vans, which were designated for the permanent use of Manila City Jail to ensure the speedy trial of inmates' cases - solving not only the problem of prolonged trials but also the congestion of jails. The vans were customized into a courtroom complete with a judge's table and seat, conference table, seats for the hearings. Fans were also donated for courtrooms' ventilation. The container vans were donated by the International Container Terminal Services Inc. Inside each of the container vans, two Manila Judges - Reynaldo Ros, Executive Judge of Regional Trial Court of Manila and Jansen Rodriguez of the Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 6 - received into their new salas a number of prisoners to hear their respective cases. "Hindi na kailangan ng mga inmates pumunta sa City Hall para sa mga hearings. Dito na mismo ang hearings dahil may mga judges mula sa Regional Trial Court at Municipal Trial Court ng Maynila na pupunta rito araw araw (The inmates need not go to the City Hall for their hearings. They will just walk a few steps and have the hearings right here since there will be judges from the RTC and MTC of Manila here everyday)," Lim said. Lim said they thought of converting container vans into courtrooms as an offshoot of the Justice on Wheels Project of Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno last July. - GMANews.TV