E-court!

I haven't heard about the E-court project which was spearheaded by Senator Pimentel before and I thought that it was a relatively new project but then I found out that it was initiated in 2003 which gives me the impression that it's no longer being implemented which is surprising because I think that it has some very useful features which makes this project worth continuing.

I'm just not sure if they are still implementing it in Makati or in other local governments, and particularly since the success of the project largely depends upon the interest of the local government unit concerned, if the local government unit withdraws its support, the project will fail.

For the initial budget, Senator Pimentel allocated P2 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund and the other P2 million was provided by the city of Makati. E-courts boasts of three major features incorporating technology into court processes: Computer-aided Transcription (CAT) facilities, case administration or case management system, and tele-video conference room.

I think that the tele-video conference room is a great idea particularly with vulnerable witnesses such as children and or traumatized victims as this will enable the other party to still see the witness while he or she is testifying and at the same time create an environment for the witness to feel safe to say what he or she wants to say. Particularly after our last OLA classroom component for the semester, which was all about: "en-GENDER-ing trial techniques" wherein we also discussed how insensitive to the plight of the witness the courtroom has become, examples like a lawyer's comment being included in the transcript of records saying that the victim deserves to be raped because of what she wore, or that the lawyer would ask again and again the victim on how the rape happened making the victim go through the traumatic experience again and again - this is a very good solution for it. Although the Rules on examination of a child witness provides that a videotaped deposition of the child may be taken, tele-video conferencing in a private room would be better for the child, the room may be decorated to make the child feel at ease and all other persons other than the facilitator would be in another room. As to traumatized victims, they don't have to see the accused face to face which could aggravate the trauma and prevent the victim from being able to testify properly. I really wonder how the project is doing now and if we also have this in Manila.