Hostallero, H. M. (2019). The burning of the Hall of Justice of Isulan, Sultan Kudarat: wipe out of court criminal records, the reconstitution and the aftermath of criminal cases (Unpublished master's thesis). Public Management Development Program, Development Academy of the Philippines.

Public Management and Development Program Senior Executive Class Batch 7 Thesis (SEC)--Development Academy of the Philippines.

There is a saying that: "it is better to have been robbed, than having your house razed by fire." This was exactly the experience of the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Sultan Kudarat when the Hall of Justice of Isulan turned into rublles due to fire. The Hall of Justice Building of Isulan, Sultan Kudarat, is the place where the judicial system in the province of Sultan Kudarat at work.It houses (i) the Regional Trial Court Branch 19 (RTC-Branch 19) and its Clerk of Court (COC); (ii) the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Sultan Kudarat (OPP-Sultan Kudarat), (iii) the Public Attorneys Office (PAO), and (iv) Provincial Parole and Probation Office (PPPO). These offices belong to the pillars of the criminal justice system, namely the Prosecution pillar, where cases filed for purposes of inquest, preliminary investigation and examination are resolved and eventually filed in court for the prosecution of such cases; the Court pillar, which monitors the reformative stage of convicts during the service of senctence under the principle of restorative justice. On August 4, 2008 the entire building of the Hall of Justice was wholly razed by fire. Documents, records, fixtures, equipment, and office were wiped out. these pillars of our criminal justice system now faced a problem on how to reconstitute their records. What will happen to the cases being prosecuted in court when along with the individual records of the criminal cases, pieces of evidence were also destroyed in the fire. In the course of reconstitution, the prosecution and even the Court face challenges in the admission of available records if the defense will not stipulate. Despite the reconstitution, the aftermath of the fire brought a lot of complications even up to the present, such as when a law enforcer had arrested persons with existing Warrants of Arrest for cases that were not reconstituted in due time. This peculiar situation of destruction by fire or similar catasthropic calamities could undermine the efficient administration of justice resulting in the inevitable dismissal of criminal cases and the eventual release of the accused from detention. The aim of this paper is to show to the public how OPP Sultan Kudarat handled the situation, as it is not remote that such incident may also happen in some other places in the future.