HUSTISYEAH! Decongesting Philippine Courts

The Supreme Court, in partnership with The Asia Foundation (Foundation), is implementing a project under the USAID-supported Judicial Strengthening to Improve Court Effectiveness (JUSTICE) project through the American Bar Association, which seeks to help decongest 175 heavily burdened courts throughout the country

With the help of the US Agency for International Development, American Bar Association, The Asia Foundation and Asian Development Bank, the Supreme Court recently launched a new, system-wide but rifle-focused reform project, nicknamed “Hustisyeah.” The immediate aim is to reduce docket congestion and ultimately to speed up the dispensation of justice in the trial courts.

Causes of congestion. The dockets of our courts are congested. This is the sad fact. They are burdened with too many cases “regardless of the time lag between filing and disposition and irrespective of whether the cases hit a snag as they inch forward towards final disposition.” The accumulation of prior years’ cases aggravated by the increase in the number of new filings without a corresponding increase in case disposition simply results in a huge backlog.

There are four general causes of case congestion. The first is delay in the adjudication process, which in turn is due to (a) protracted or piecemeal trials, (b) dilatory tactics of lawyers, (c) lack of coordination between investigators and prosecutors in criminal cases (which constitute the bulk of the congestion), and (d) inefficient case buildup.

The second cause is the lack of an efficient case management system compounded by insufficient management training for judges. This specific cause is being addressed separately by the “eCourt” program, which I took up in this space last June 23 (“Automating the judiciary”).

The third is the uneven distribution of caseloads. Some trial courts have the ideal load of 300 cases only, but most of them are burdened with thousands. The courts in the National Capital Region are notorious for their congestion. Extreme examples are the Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC) Branch 80 in Muntinlupa and the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 19 in Cavite which each have—believe it or not—over 3,500 cases. This number is simply impossible to handle.

Examples of MeTCs in the National Capital region with over 2,000 pending cases are Branch 79 in Las Piñas; Branch 63, Makati; Branches 32 and 34, Quezon City; and Branch 81, Valenzuela City. With over 1,500 cases are MeTC Branches 68, 69, 71 and 72 in Pasig City and Branches 35 and 39 in Quezon City. And yet, the rule of thumb is that a trial court is deemed congested when its caseload exceeds 500.

Most provincial courts have lighter loads, but some have over 1,500 like: RTC Branch 16 in Bulacan; RTC Branches 89, 20, 22 and 23, Cavite; RTC Branches 24, 25 and 93, Laguna; RTC Branches 71, 73 and 74, Antipolo City; RTC Branches 66 and 68, Iloilo; RTC Branches 25, 26, 53, 55, 56, 60 and 61, Cebu; RTC Branch 38, Saranggani; and the MeTC Branch in Lapu-Lapu City.

The fourth is the lack of accountability—that is, the lack of an effective monitoring system coupled with the lack of incentives for judges to reduce their caseloads.

Focused decongestion plan. Hustisyeah is not one of those “one-size-fits-all” programs. Rather, it required each of the 175 target courts to conduct individually an inventory of their pending cases and to identify those that can easily be removed from their dockets moto proprio without the need to hear the parties.

These “dismissable” cases include those that are obviously outside the jurisdiction of the court, those that have prescribed (or filed out of time or beyond the allowable period), those where the parties failed to submit pretrial briefs or failed to appear at the pretrial, those where the parties failed to observe discovery procedures ordered by the judge, or those where the complainant has failed to prosecute the case over an unreasonable time.

Another easy and fast way of clearing criminal cases is to “archive” or deem inactive those with unserved warrants of arrest for six months, or those where proceedings were suspended because the accused was of unsound mind, or has jumped bail before arraignment and could not be arrested after due diligence by the police.

On the other hand, the following civil cases could also be archived: those being settled out of court, or stopped by temporary restraining orders issued by higher courts, or when the defendant, without the fault or negligence of the plaintiff, cannot be served with summons within six months.

Other ways of clearing dockets immediately would be to refer some cases for mediation or arbitration, or to encourage the parties to enter into plea bargaining agreements that are not contrary to law or public policy.

Systematize process. These mechanics for decongestion are not easy to implement, especially for courts that are really congested and where judges are busy hearing cases morning and afternoon, and writing decisions in between trials.

Paralegals and law students will have to be trained and deployed to help. They can assist in typologizing the cases and identify those for dismissal or archiving. They should be trained to prepare case briefs to make it easy for the judges to decide what cases can be dismissed moto proprio or archived or mediated.

The Supreme Court, through the Office of the Court Administrator, needs to produce easy-to-comprehend manuals and modules that can be used in training the law students and paralegals.

All told, I think that, once properly and doggedly implemented, Hustisyeah and the “eCourt” program can decongest the dockets and speed up the delivery of justice in the trial courts.

JUSTICE ON WHEELS

The Justice on Wheels is an access to justice programme which was commenced in 2004 by the country’s Supreme Court following the example of the Guatemalan Mobile Court System. JOW aims to bring justice closer to the poor by providing on-the-spot fast and free dispute resolution services – adjudication, mediation and conciliation.’

A bus is travelling the country literally delivering accessible justice to the local communities. One part of the bus has been transformed into a court room and the other serves as a mediation chamber. The disputants are offered not only facilities but also can benefit from the professional services of judges, prosecutors, mediators, clerks and lawyers. Even process server and a court room guard travel with the bus.

The Supreme Court has deployed its Enhanced Justice on Wheels (EJOW) buses to Makati after court operations were affected by events ensuing from the preventive suspension order against Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay.

Deputy Court Administrator Raul Villanueva has been tasked by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to coordinate with the executive judges in Makati.

“In view of the inability to enter the premises of the Makati City Hall, the Chief Justice has instructed the Office of the Court of Administrator through Deputy Court Administrator Raul Villanueva to coordinate with the executive judges of Makati to secure a temporary offsite to receive applications for urgent writs,” the high court’s Public Information Office said.

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A total of 10 cases filed with the courts in Dumaguete City were successfully mediated while at least 15 criminal cases have been terminated under the Supreme Court’s Justice on Wheels program.

In a press statement, the Supreme Court said that under the program, criminal cases of inmates are sorted out and prioritized and acted upon in a short period of time, including cases of elderly inmates, children and women.

It starts with those who will enter a guilty plea.

It is also intended for inmates who have been languishing in jail longer than their penalty.

It dismisses cases provisionally, especially if private complainants are not anymore interested in pursuing the case, like in cellphone theft cases.

According to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. Aranal Sereno the program is bringing the face of the Judiciary to the small people.

Sereno said if there is anything as important as justice to the people, it is that it is felt and that it is heard.

The Justice on Wheels program of the Supreme Court started nine years ago.

The Philippines’ 24th Chief Justice expressed the belief that with the joint effort of all stakeholders, justice can finally be had by those who need it the most.

Sereno said the program will only succeed with the cooperation of various local government units, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, and public officials.

Likewise, as part of the Enhanced Justice on Wheels program, the SC, through the Office of the Court Administrator, has rendered decision on 130 cases and ordered the release of 130 detainees during the pilot-testing of the “Judgement Day” in some of the country’s key cities last June 18.

According to Court Administrator Justice Midas P. Marquez, this was based on the latest information they gathered from the City of Manila, Quezon City, Angeles City, Cebu City and Davao City.

The cases involved those inmates who are senior citizens or the elderly and those cases which had long been pending because of the non-appearance of the complainants in the hearing.

According to Marquez, the project is aimed at solving the problem of “jail congestion” or the overcrowding of detention facilities in the country.

The SC’s mobile court has freed more than 5,000 prisoners who have pending cases in trial courts in the country when the Justice on Wheels was launched in 2004.

Since the Justice on Wheels program was re-launched in 2008, some 150 provinces and cities were visited, which led to the release of more than 6,000 inmates.

According to Deputy Court Administrator Atty. Raul Villanueva the objective of the Justice on Wheels program of the SC is to help prisoners with inadequate finances to hire lawyers and defend themselves in courts.

The enhanced Justice on wheels is the centerpiece of the SC in trying to address the issues and concerns of prisoners who are poor but deserve to have their cases be acted upon as quickly as possible.

The mobile courts are sent to provinces acting as trial courts to speed up the solution of pending cases in all trial courts in the country.

The Enhanced Justice on Wheels program is geared towards addressing the cases of inmates who need medical assistance, hospitalization, among others.

It also covers drugs cases.

If there are no witnesses, it will provisionally dismiss the charges and until revived for a certain period of time, the accused had to be released permanently. (PNA)

ASSISTING COURTS SYSTEM

The Supreme Court (SC) has launched another program to speed up the wheels of justice in the country through the “Assisting Courts System,” the latest project under the high court’s judicial reform agenda.

The new scheme is meant to address the disproportionate allocation of cases in various courts around the country.

During its launch last Jan. 22 at the Diamond Hotel in Manila, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno said the SC approved the new project under A.M. No. 14-11-393-RTC to reduce court congestion and case delays.

“It has come to the point where the justices of the Supreme Court are already discussing a system where those with lighter dockets are willing to absorb more in order to ensure that justice really moves forward, at all levels in this country,” she revealed.

Under the order, the SC designated assisting courts from stations that have light case loads to help courts in adjacent stations with heavy case loads.

The high court directed the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) to conduct pilot tests designating Metropolitan Trial Courts (MeTCs) of Manila to help courts in Makati City and Quezon City, and likewise charging the Regional Trial Courts (RTCs) of Cebu City to aid courts in Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City.

The pilot testing, however, would only cover newly filed civil cases and Batas Pambansa Bilang 22 or bouncing check cases, Sereno added.

Court Administrator Midas Marquez said the OCA would study the process and make its recommendation after six months.

The mechanics of the system will be released to the public under OCA guidelines and its implementation would begin on Feb. 2.

Sereno stressed that teamwork would be needed for the success of the new project, addressing the judges from first-level courts in Makati, Manila and Quezon City led by Manila Metropolitan Trial Court Executive Judge Glenda Ramos, who attended the event.

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JUDGMENT DAY PROGRAM

A total of 215 prisoners, one of them who had languished in jail for 17 years, have been released through summary proceedings under the “Judgment Day” program of the Supreme Court (SC).

Of those released, 61 of them were from the province of Cavite where the SC held its “Judgment Day” program last Friday, Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez said.

The program, aimed at conducting speedy trial of cases to decongest jails nationwide, is patterned after the “Enhanced Justice on Wheels” (EJoW), also a project of the SC.

Marquez said that while the “Judgment Day” project is being held right inside the courtrooms and detention centers, EJoW is conducted inside buses that have been transformed into

courtrooms. EJoW buses travel nationwide to speed up resolution of pending cases.

In last Friday’s “Judgment Day” program, a total of 68 cases were heard by trial court judges led by Tagaytay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Jaime Santiago and Bacoor City RTC Judge Eduardo Tanguanco.

As a result, 61 detainees, one of them had been in prison for 17 years, were ordered released.

The names of those released have been withheld by the SC.

The “Judgment Day” program was launched by the SC last June with simultaneous hearings in cities of Manila, Quezon, Angeles, Cebu, and Davao.

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Judgment Day: SC frees 286 still in jail due to delayed trials

MANILA, Philippines–Amid the scandal over convicted criminals living lives of luxury in prison, the Supreme Court decided to free in time for Christmas almost 300 inmates who had been left in detention by delayed trials.About 286 inmates from Cebu, Cagayan, Isabela and Marikina City were released from jail and were reunited with their families just before the holidays under a recent resolution issued by the high court granting the release of those still awaiting verdict after serving jail time equivalent to their probable prison sentence.This is part of the judiciary’s efforts to decongest the country’s crowded jails under the Judgment Day program, according to a statement from the high court’s Office of the Court Administrator.“In a recent resolution on jail decongestion, the Supreme Court directed, among others, the release of an accused who had been detained for a period at least equal to the minimum of the penalty for the offense charged against him,” the statement said.Under the Judgment Day program, simultaneous hearings are held to resolve cases “with detention prisoners who may already be released pursuant to existing laws and rules.”Those released in time for the holidays had already served the possible prison term for their offense even before the court could hand down a verdict on their cases.Deserving inmatesOf the 286 freed inmates, 166 were released by Cebu courts, 90 by courts in Marikina, 15 by Cagayan courts and another 15 by Isabela courts.Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said more Judgment Day hearings would be held across the country in early 2015 to grant deserving inmates their freedom.The program is a spin-off of the Supreme Court’s Enhanced Justice on Wheels Program, where mobile courts travel to underserved parts of the country to hear long-pending cases, including those involving detention prisoners who were acquitted after languishing in jail for a long time.Lengthy trials because of clogged court dockets have led to congested detention centers for the accused, a chain of problems that the high court seeks to address through several initiatives, including continuing trials and computerized court processes.

Crackdown on prison systemThe release of the prisoners came in the midst of a crackdown on the prison system by the justice department involving convicted criminals, particularly those serving time for drug trafficking and kidnapping, who were found to be enjoying special treatment at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, living in condominium-type accommodations at the NBP’s maximum security compound with unlimited access to weapons, computers, electronics, appliances and drugs paraphernalia.

SERENO SPEECH: MARCH 2015-10-02Let me first introduce you to the Hustisyeah! Project. Indeed I am gratified to see the spirit of volunteerism alive and well in this project. It involves three activity phases: 1) inventory of court dockets to weed out dormant and dismissible cases; 2) formulation of case decongestion plans to fast-track the processing of the remaining cases; and 3) implementation of these decongestion plans. We piloted this project in 33 courts in Quezon City that had case loads higher than 500. Five lawyers, 24 law graduates, and 53 law students volunteered to assist in the implementation of the case decongestion plans.

Let me impress you with the results. In the 33 Quezon City courts where this project has been piloted, there was a 29.28% reduction of the case load from the 32,173 as of 2012 to 22,753 as of December 2014. Right now Hustisyeah! is also ongoing in Makati, Davao, Angeles, Pasig, and Manila. If we are able to roll out this program in a more progressive and expansive manner, we hope to eventually see the targeted docket decongestion met eventually in five years’ time, but again, I'm telling you that success creates its own set of problems.

Another project and this was started way back before I was appointed is the Enhanced Justice on Wheels (EJOW) Programwhere you have traveling buses serving as court houses, going to locations which are not as accessible or in locations where the presence of the team from Manila will help the expediting of the release of detention prisoners who may already have served the appropriate period of detention should they have been found guilty, or those cases that are easily mediatable. According toEJOW Chair Justice Mariano del Castillo, between the time EJOW started in 2004 and November 2014, EJOW mobile court hearings have resulted in the dismissal of 3,885 cases, and the release of 8,355 prisoners. Under the EJOW 13,582 cases have also been successfully mediated which means that 13,582 more cases are no longer in the court dockets. As the push towards mediation and targeted interventions continues, we hope to have even more impressive figures.

We have also passed several Rules of Court to expedite proceedings and the resolution of cases. An example is the Amended Rule of Procedure for Small Claims Cases which cover money claims not more than P100,000. Among the Rule’s novel features are the use of designated forms for pleadings and – previously unthinkable – the prohibition against the appearance of lawyers. The Small Claims Procedures were developed to provide quick, simple, and inexpensive means of dispute settlement in courts. A total of 74,019 small claims cases as of December 2013 were recorded and identified from a survey of provinces and cities and courts. Of these cases, only 15% remain pending at the moment – meaning there’s an 85% disposition success rate. Based on statistics gathered from the court’s

database, small claims cases are disposed of within an average of 75 days.

In 2012, the Court passed the Judicial Affidavit Rule (JAR) which does away with the witnesses’ testimonies on direct examination by putting testimonies in judicial affidavits without need for further questions except the right to cross examination. The piloting of the JAR in Quezon City trial courts showed a reduction of as much as two-thirds of the time consumed in the presentation of witnesses’ oral testimonies or direct examination. From the fabled seven years that it takes to litigate a case in the lower court, we can now reduce it to four-to-five years. We are not going to stop there. We have further measures to even shorter litigation time.

Last year, we also promoted the continuous trial system in the salas of 26 Regional Trial Courts and six Metropolitan Trial Courts in Manila, Quezon City, and Makati. Under the continuous trial system, we hope to reduce trial time from three to five years will be reduced to 90 days. There are now 52, no longer just 26, volunteer courts. The judges of these courts actually volunteered to be part of this “experiment.” When I became chief justice and after a few months of discussing ideas with trial court judges, one judge who is now a Justice of the Court of Appeals told me never in her life did she expect to see the continuous trial system implemented in this country because she thought there were just too many excuses on why we cannot succeed in introducing radical reforms in the procedure in courts. Now she is saying hope – that perhaps a new look, a new way of seeing things is being ushered and there is now courage in even experimenting and trying with bold and innovative ideas.

The Court has likewise approved the piloting of assisting courts, whereby less congested courts from nearby jurisdictions will help overburdened courts deal with their case loads. For the pilot project, 20 Metropolitan Trial Courts in Manila will be assisting 13 Metropolitan Trial Courts in Quezon City and seven Metropolitan Trial Courts in Makati. In Cebu, 12 Regional Trial Courts in Cebu City will be assisting three Regional Trial Courts in Mandaue and three Regional Trial Courts in Lapu-Lapu; one Municipal Circuit Trial Court in Compostela-Cordova will assist one Metropolitan Trial Court in Cities in Lapu-Lapu City. This is a redistribution solution.