Services as ‘atrocious’ as court fees

WHY DO many of our courts in Metro Manila suffer from lack of telephone facilities in spite of the atrocious docketing fees litigants have to pay when they file cases? Wasn’t the imposition of those highly unconscionable fees justified as the only way to improve their service?

We have been googling the directories of metropolitan and regional trial courts within Metro Manila, and most of the telephone numbers posted there were either “not yet in service” (huh?!) or eternally out of order. And we are not talking yet about the dead air conditioners silently crying out to be replaced.

This insanely prevalent “failure to communicate” by telephone is forcing people with court cases to go personally to those courts—just to make inquiries. It is so wasteful of their time, money and energy. Worse, it compounds the traffic congestion already choking all streets in the entire metropolis.

Why has the Office of the Court Administrator, whose job is to make sure the lower courts function properly and efficiently, not addressed this simple problem as a break to taxpayers who are “taxed enough already” in more ways than one?  Kung sa ganito kasimpleng usapin walang nangyayari, ano pa kung mas kumplikado ang problema?

—NIMFA RINA RICAFORT, ricafortnimfarina@gmail.com