EXPECT clean corridors and corners at the Regional Trial Courts as the last batch of sacks of terminated cases that was turned over to a private bidder on Tuesday, September 27.
Head of the Office of the Clerk of Court lawyer Francis Campaner, in a media interview on Monday, said the clearing was ordered in a circular issued by the Supreme Court.
Campaner said that for years these indisposed cases caused congestion in different offices.
"For quite a time naga-clog pud baya ni sa atong opisina unya ang korte baya wala nagkadako ang espasyo so ang iyahang available spaces nga magamit supposedly para butanganan sa mga bag-o nga records (For quite a time, these documents clog in different offices and our court's spaces are not getting bigger. These spaces could be used for storage of new documents)," Campaner said.
Campaner also assured that these cases are among those which had long been terminated.
"Terminated talaga, hindi kasali dito ang mga ongoing na kaso. It includes civil cases, criminal cases that were already terminated long time ago," Campaner said.
Campaner added that cases are considered terminated if it has been dismissed, undecided, or withdrawn by another party.
Campaner said that last August they have told concerned parties to secure their own copies of the case they are involved in within the years that were mandated to be disposed in the circular, which provided files of terminated cases including those cases five years and above.
Campaner said that among those that were excluded from the disposal were those archived in special proceedings and land registration cases.
Campaner said that Supreme Court has given authority to create a regional disposal committee composed of executive judges of the Regional Trial Court, and Municipal Trial Courts, their assistants and the office of the clerk of court for the disposal of all terminated and residual records.
Campaner added that the disposal started last Saturday, and that all the disposed cases were turned over to the highest bidder, Mario Constantino.