Leonen: “The Supreme Court finally comes to the Bangsamoro”
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 12 September) – Seven justices of the Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice, visited Marawi City on September 8 to award historical bar site markers but ended up making history themselves.
It was the first time Marawi was visited by a group of justices from the Supreme Court, all seven of them wearing formal long-sleeved polo in Bangsamoro-woven fabric, mostly inaul from Maguindanao.
“This is a dream come true, that the Supreme Court finally comes to the Bangsamoro…This is not a court only in Padre Faura, Manila. It is a court for all of the Republic of the Philippines,” said Senior Associate Justice Leonen, chair of the 2020/21 Bar Exams.
Leonen was chair of the government peace panel that negotiated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from mid-July 2010 until his appointment as Associate Justice in November 2012. A month before his designation, he signed the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) with the MILF.
“Today is just the beginning of the judiciary playing its role to help our Bangsamoro people achieve everlasting peace and the rule of law,” Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo said.
He noted that this is the “very first time” that almost half of the members of the high tribunal visited the city.
With Gesmundo were Leonen, Japar Dimaampao, the second Moro but first Meranaw appointed as Associate Justice, and Justices Mario Lopez, Samuel Gaerlan, Joseph Lopez, and Jose Midas Marquez.
Gesmundo thanked Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez who joined them in Marawi. He said the presence of the Secretary is a sign that “the judiciary and the executive will work together, hopefully with the legislative body of our government, while independent but can work coordinately, to address the issues and concerns of our Bangsamoro people.”
“Epochal and monumental,” was how Dimaampao described the visit. The Supreme Court justices were there to hand over the historical markers to the MSU, particularly the venues of the localized and digitalized bar exams — MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology in neighboring Iligan City and MSU General Santos City.
“We are very lucky,” Dimaampao said, “that we have a Chief Justice whose heart is close to the Bangsamoro people.”
Echoing Leonen, he said, the Supreme Court has really come to the Bangsamoro people as he announced that part of the Chief Justice’s five-year strategic plan for judicial innovations is that the next Shari’ah special bar exams “will be at par with the regular bar exams by 2024,” and will be digitalized as well.
In addition, the Supreme Court, he said, is awaiting the submission of the draft rules regarding the integration of the Shari’ah bar exams. “Soon, we will have integrated Shari’ah bar in the Philippines.”
He said the Supreme Court has commenced projects that are in relation to the enhancement of Shari’ah legal system “and this may include the revision of special rules of procedure in Shari’ah courts.”
He said the Supreme Court will hold the first National Shari’ah Summit in Cagayan de Oro City on February 11 to 13, 2023.
Gesmundo assured that the plans discussed by Justice Dimaampao will not end as mere plans but a reality.
“We expect the full support of the people in the Bangsamoro part of Mindanao to achieve this,” he said.
Gesmundo said the localized bar exams relieved those in the provinces outside Metro Manila from spending a huge sum of money if they had taken the bar in the national capital, as has been the case until the 2020/21 bar exams.
He said they are bringing the bar exams “closer to the examinees.”
Leonen said admission to the bar has become more equitable through the initiative to localize and digitalize the entire process as well to revise the grading and evaluation.
He said the Chief Justice and the rest of the Justices “are fully aware that holding the exam in only one site in Metro Manila caused untold expenses for those who came from Mindanao especially from the Bangsamoro.”
“Their moral support would have been far from them. In a pandemic and the uncertainty caused by it, it may have spelled the difference for many of our examinees. I can confidently say that all these contributed to a historic passing rate,” he said.
A total of 8,241 out of 11,402 examinees or 72.28% passed the bar held on Feb. 4 and 6.
Edmundo also commended the MSU for establishing the first virtual law clinic in the country and without doubt the most innovative .. legal education program through its Sarimanok virtual clinic website.”
The justices passed by “Ground Zero,” the former battleground between government forces and the Islamic State-inspired Maude Group and its allies during the five-month war in 2017.
Then President Rodrigo Duterte declared Marawi “liberated from the terrorist influence” on October 17, 2017 but five years later, most of the displaced persons have yet to return home.
Duterte signed into law the Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2022 on April 13 but President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. has yet to constitute the nine-member Marawi Compensation Board.
RA 11696 or the Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2022 was signed by Duterte on April 13 and published in the Official Gazette on April 27. Reckoned from publication date, it became effective on May 12. The Implementing Rules and Regulations is supposed to have been promulgated “within 60 days” or on or before July 12, 2022. The Board promulgates the IRR.
The delayed appointment of members of the board will also delay the promulgation of the IRR, updating of the Post Conflict Needs Assessment (PCNA) and ensuring there is a substantial budget for 2023.
The law provides that the Office of Civil Defense, in coordination with Task Force Bango Marawi, shall update the PCNA report within three months after the effectivity of the law “for purposes of assessing the degree of damage and present the actual or estimated valuation of such damage to each structure caused by the siege and implementation of MRRRP (Marawi Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program).”
RA 11696 provides tax-free monetary compensation to three kinds of claimants displaced by the Marawi Siege: those whose properties were destroyed; those who lost their loved ones during the five-month war; and those whose properties were demolished during the implementation of the MRRRP. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
READ:
When will Marcos appoint members of the Marawi Compensation Board?
No comments:
Post a Comment