The commuters, under the National Council for Commuters Protection (NCCP), and the workers, affiliated with the Integrated Labor Organization of the Philippines (ILOP), said it will not only help ease traffic but will also enable judiciary personnel to report to work on time.

The request of court personnel was conveyed to then Supreme Court (SC) Administrator Presbiterio Velasco Jr., now an SC justice, by former Gov. Jose P. Icaonapo Jr. of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).

Icaonapo, a three-time president of the Philippine Trial Lawyers Association (PTLA), noted that court personnel are always in a hurry to report for work before 8 a.m.

Court personnel are sometimes late because of traffic, particularly in Metro Manila, he said.

Many court personnel, Icaonapo said, live in subdivisions far from the courts where they are assigned.

"Even if they wake up very early in the morning, they still encounter difficulty in catching up the 8 a.m. bundy clock deadline,’’ Icaonapo said.

Meanwhile, Icaonapo hopes that the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will exempt from the color-coding scheme vehicles of lawyers in Metro Manila.

He said most of them have only one car and they are compelled to take a taxi in going to and from the courts when their cars are covered by the color-coding scheme. "Taxis are hard to come by during rush hours," he said.

"As officers of the courts, trial lawyers should be exempted from colorcoding scheme so they will not be late in attending court hearings,’’ Icaonapo said. (E. T. Suarez)