SC deploys buses as Makati courts go off-site

The Supreme Court has deployed two "mobile courts" to serve as temporary courtrooms for Makati, after the Makati City Hall became inaccessible following serving of the second suspension order against Mayor Jejomar Erwin "Junjun" Binay.

 

In a tweet on Tuesday, the SC Public Information Office said a temporary off-site venue would be set up to ensure that court operations in the city would not be paralyzed. The city hall houses the Makati Regional Trial Court.

 

"In view of the inability to enter the premises of the Makati City hall, the chief justice has instructed the Office of the Court Administrator, throup Deputy Court Administrator Raul Villanueva, to secure a temporary off site to receive urgent writs," said the SC PIO.

 

The SC said that Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, upon recommendation by the Office of the Court Administrator, has ordered the deployment of two Justice on Wheels (EJOW) buses to serve as temporary courtrooms in Makati.

 

"The exact location of said buses will be announced forthwith; OCA has advised that filing of court papers may be accepted starting tomorrow, once the EJOW buses/temporary systems are fully set up," added the SC.

 

The Department of Interior and Local Government on Tuesday morning served another suspension order on Mayor Binay in connection with the graft charges related to alleged irregularities in the construction of a building at the Makati City Science High School.

 

Binay has already vowed to defy the suspension order and hole up inside the city hall. The Mayor had earlier defied a similar preventive suspension, over the alleged overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building II.

 

Petitions contesting and defending the first suspension order are separately pending before the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. — Mark Merueñas/RSJ, GMA News