A group of similarly configured women shuffle into view a few minutes later, accompanied by young men in maroon uniforms that identify them as Criminology Interns. The chain gangs are detainees of the Bureau Jail Management and Penology, and are here this morning to await their arraignment.
The entire building, which was designed with an open courtyard in the center of four floors, is a stately, if worn, heritage structure that is sometimes still called the old Ombudsman’s office, but currently seats the Regional Trial Court of Manila, which has 56 branches or courtrooms each presided over by an individual judge.
Branch 31 has been specially designated as drugs court, and every single day since she was appointed to Branch 31 in January 2015, Judge Sophia Solidum-Taylor has been tackling drug-related cases, which can number up to the hundreds each month. This day’s crop of detainees, transported from the nearby Manila City Jail, are not much different from those that came the day before, or will come the following day: some of them have been caught with a small amount of drugs, others have been arrested in buy-bust street operations for selling drugs. Whatever they may have done, their futures will be decided for them inside these courtroom doors (Judge Solidum-Taylor is my second aunt and has agreed to let me observe the proceedings).
Branch 31 has been specially designated as drugs court, and every single day since she was appointed to Branch 31 in January 2015, Judge Sophia Solidum-Taylor has been tackling drug-related cases, which can number up to the hundreds each month.
By 9 a.m. the small courtroom, curtained on the front wall with shiny purple cloth, was crowded with the accused, police witnesses, lawyers and clerks. Early on during the hearing, the judge asked who among the accused would like to plead guilty to the lesser crime of Section 15 under RA 9165.
Several detainees raised their hands, a few hesitantly, perhaps unsure of the implications. Only those arrested for drug possession of under 5 grams are eligible to enter a plea bargain for the lesser offense of drug use, which carries a penalty of a minimum of six months at a rehabilitation center, compared to imprisonment of 12 years and one day to 20 years. If you were some poor guy who was brought in for being disorderly on the streets and then found to have a tiny bit of methamphetamine hydrochloride in your pocket, you would probably take the plea bargain too. The group of detainees who agreed to plead guilty to drug use were to be re-arraigned, and dealt with personally by the judge later.
