URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan - Most courts have many cases pending for decision. However, Judge Joven F. Costales, presiding judge of Regional Trial Court Branch 45, Urdaneta City, Pangasinan, has no pending cases for decision as of the end of June. Likewise, all motions are resolved.

The matter was related by the Branch Clerk of Court Atty. Max G. Pascua to the Committee on Zero Backlog of Cases headed by Justice Reynato S. Puno of the Supreme Court this month.

Costales, known as the “Hanging Judge of Pangasinan”, works even after taking his lunch, on the bus and at home on Saturdays and Sundays. He makes it a point to dispose cases within the time the Supreme Court imposes for a case to be disposed of. He was twice a candidate for judicial excellence.

Incidentally, Costales has sentenced to death 26 accused and more than 30 persons for life imprisonment.