Peralta bares 10-point program as Chief Justice

Rey Panaligan | Manila Bulletin | October 28, 2019

Declogging of the courts’ dockets, from the Supreme Court (SC) down to the lowest courts, is one of the priority programs of new Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta in his more than two years stay as head of the judiciary.

The declogging of courts’ dockets is No. 1 in Peralta’s 10-point program which he an­nounced during his first flag-raising ceremony at the SC on Monday.

Peralta was appointed 26th Chief Justice replacing then Chief Justice Lucas P. Bersamin who retired last October 18. He is expected to head the judiciary until his compulsory retire­ment on March 27, 2022 when he turns 70, the mandatory retirement age for members of the judiciary.

A check with the Office of the Court Ad­ministrator (OCA) showed that as of December 2018, there are 8,852 pending cases with the SC; 19,732 with the Court of Appeals (CA); 5,237 with the Sandiganbayan; 1,353 with the Court of Tax Appeal (CTA); 546,182 with the regional trial courts (RTCs) and 160,153 with the first level courts (municipal courts and metro­politan trial courts).

To achieve the declogging of court dockets, Peralta said clerks of court in the SC “will be required to conduct periodic inventory of all the cases pending in their divisions and consult with the court en banc (full court) as to how to solve the issue of backlog and other concerns.”

As far as the other courts are concerned, the Chief Justice said “all other courts must continue to comply with existing rules and guidelines pertaining to prescribe periods for trial dates, including promulgation of decisions and other rules geared towards the realization of speedy disposition of cases.”

Second in his agenda is the imple­mentation of the duly-revised rules of court “and the continuous revision of the rules of court and other rules of procedure so as to be more responsive to the needs of court users.”

He asked the Philippine Judicial Academy (PhilJA) “to focus on skills-based training for judges and court personnel.”

“Skills-based training programs have been one of the most effective manners of addressing the problem of court delay and PhilJA has been in this direction for the last several years. I do believe however, that there are other skills-based programs that may be implemented by PhilJA,” Peralta said.

By the end of this year, the SC will enforce the rules on search and inspection under the Philippine Competitive Commission Law; by early next year, the special rules on admiralty cases and by the middle of next year the amendments on the rules of procedure and rules of evi­dence, he said.

“In due time, I will constitute a committee to study the possibility of amending our present rules of crimi­nal procedures,” he said.
Third in his agenda is the “au­tomation of court processes and incorporation of court technology in hearing and trial.”

Peralta said, “this will apply to both the adjudicative and administrative processes of the court and on the use of court technology during trial espe­cially for electronic evidence and tes­timonies thru video conferencing.”

Strengthening OCA

Fourth in the agenda is the “con­tinuation of the weeding out of misfits from the judiciary and adoption of a system where court may initiate on its own the investigation of cases being handled by members of the judiciary even in the absence of complaints.”

Peralta said he plans “to impose timelines in resolving administra­tive complaints, including complaint initiated by the court and timelines for the court to resolve these com­plaints.”

Strengthening the OCA and the implementation of the judicial in­tegrity board is fifth in Peralta’s agenda.

He said the strengthening of OCA means the automation of its processes “to monitor and effectively address the concern of the lower courts as re­gards infrastructure, communication, equipment, and supplies issues.”

With a strengthened OCA, the office could effectively “address the lack of court personnel and inequi­table distribution of cases in the lower courts,” he said.

Item No. 6 is the strengthening of policies and guidelines on the security of justices, judges, and halls of justice nationwide.

Peralta said: “We hope that we can device the system, either through leg­islation or through court initiative, the creation of security system patterned after the United States’ marshals.”

The setting up of a “help desk” in the Office of the Chief Justice and other offices to receive the concerns of court users is seventh on the menu.

No. 8 is the “monitoring of per­formance in all courts especially for the observance of the rules on hear­ing dates, including the observance of reglementary and prescribed periods to resolve pending incidents.”

“This program is aimed at attain­ing an objective evaluation of work performance of court employees and officials for purposes of promotion and the conferring of Judicial Excel­lence Awards,” he said.

Follow rules

The improvement of procurement and bidding processes for faster and timely implementation of projects is ninth on the list.

“This will involve the establish­ment of dedicated procurement and bidding support office and the adop­tion of best practices of other govern­ment agencies,” he said.

“In this connection, prudence shall be exercised with the disburse­ment of funds and shall be in accor­dance with the existing auditing rules, and in accordance with the govern­ment appropriation act and shall be based on urgency and immediate needs,” he stressed.

Lastly, Peralta said he will move for the creation of a strategic plan­ning management unit “for the organized planning implementa­tion, monitoring and evaluation of court projects geared towards court specified goals that are aligned to the country’s national development plans.”

“This will ensure continuity of court programs and project in the event of changes in management and leadership,” he said.

He told his colleagues, SC officials and employees during the flag-raising ceremony: “I will lead by example.”

“To achieve our goals and aspira­tions, each and everyone in the judi­ciary must be guided by this motto: Let us be united and let us follow the rules,” he said.

At the same time, Peralta said he will continue the program started by then Chief Justice Bersamin, “par­ticularly on clinical legal education program.”

“I have other numerous plans for the judiciary especially as regards the strengthening of employees’ sense of self-worth so that each employee in the judiciary will take pride in saying that he/she is a public servant in the judiciary. Rest assured that the wel­fare of the employees shall always be considered,” he said.

Source: https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/10/28/peralta-bares-10-point-program-as-chief-justice/