ANGELES CITY – “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
So goes the legal maxim as the wheels of justice most often grind exceedingly slow. But not at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) 59 here which recently made history for being able to render a decision on a human trafficking case, a conviction, within eight months after it was filed.
RTC 59 Presiding Judge Maria Angelica Paras Quiambao found Esmeraldo “Jay” T. Amurao and Marilyn “Lyn” Valencia guilty of peddling five minors and a woman to local and foreign customers.
They were sentenced to life imprisonments. “Typical human trafficking cases in the Philippines take four years before being decided. I expedited the process because the international standard is less than a year,” Quiambao said.
Clerk of Court Atty. Michelle Jocson said a composite team of operatives from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, representatives of the International Justice Mission and the Department of Social Welfare and Development pounced on Amurao and Valencia in front of the Nathalia Hotel along Fields Avenue here.
Four counts of child abuse as defined in Republic Act 7610 and five counts of human trafficking per RA 9208 embodied in Criminal Cases No 13-9736 to 13- 9744 were filed against the two on February 25, 2013, according to Jocson.
Judge Paras handed the decision on November 8, 2013 with its promulgation on November 15, 2013. Last September, RTC 59 also convicted a woman for pushing her 16-year-old niece into prostitution.
