MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) on October 14 released a five-year plan aiming to solve perennial problems of the judiciary through innovations in services leading to “greater access to justice” for all.
The Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations (SPJI) 2022-2027 aims to establish new frameworks and approaches to solve mainstay problems in the judiciary, such as case delays, clogged dockets, and little to no resources. These have been exacerbated by congestion and slow court administrative systems.
According to the SPJI, the numerous problems in the judiciary stem from a poor court-to-population ratio, rules of procedure that allow for protracted litigations, delaying manual processes, and “incompetence or negligence” on the part of some court officials and employees.
The COVID-19 pandemic made delays even worse and congested the courts even more.
According to Raymund Narag, criminology professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the Philippines has one of the longest paces of litigation in the world. Detained accused stay in jail for an average of 528 days before their cases are disposed of. Some may even stay in jail for as long as 15 to 20 years while undergoing trial still unconvicted.
Meanwhile, court vacancy in the lower courts remains an issue, too. Of the total 2,692 courts authorized by Congress, as of September 1, 2021, 308 courts were listed as “vacant” and another 143 were “unorganized.” Some 120 judges were deemed “retired,” which caused 21% of courts to be unoccupied.
A February 2017 Asean Today report, citing former chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, said that the Philippines only had 2,000 courts to serve a population of 100 million. This translates to around one court per 50,000 people.
The Sandiganbayan, which tries cases of public officials, takes an average of 15 years to decide on a case, the report added.
Because of all of this, the public perceives inefficiency, and even corruption in the courts, the SC itself acknowledged in its plan. What can be done? The SC highlighted four guiding principles in its SPJI:
- Timely and fair justice – The judiciary should be providing timely, independent adjudication, and assuring equal access to justice in real time.
- Transparent and accountable justice – The judiciary should uphold transparency and accountability to inspire confidence and trust from the public.
- Equal and inclusive justice – Court services must be accessible to everyone equally for “genuine access” to justice.
- Technologically adaptive management – Basic court systems and processes must be run on technology.
Here are some things to know about the SC’s five-year plan.
The SPJI wants to achieve three outcomes: efficiency, innovation, and access.
Efficiency
Under each of the three outcomes, the SC outlines specific objectives. In achieving efficiency in the judiciary, the SC wants to streamline court systems and operations based on the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
Some activities in this streamlining include a judiciary-wide organizational review, and the creation of a Supreme Court Management Committee and a Planning Development Office. The SC also eyes the establishment of a caseflow management program and the constitution of a judiciary caseflow management committee.
Another objective for efficiency is to enhance quality measure to drive performance excellence. Here, the SC plans to address the needs and welfare of court workers – from justices, judges, to court personnel.
This objective has 12 activities, namely:
- Launching a more inclusive and responsive judiciary health and welfare program
- Institutionalizing a socialized health insurance system for officials and employees
- Establishing a Mental Health Unit
- Mandating free or subsidized annual physical and mental health examinations
- Strengthening child-minding centers in courts
- Developing measurement and analytical tools to improve organizational performance
- Developing an experience-based, data-driven performance metrics and evaluation system
- Strengthening judicial education
- Enhancing legal education through bar reforms
- Pursuing a campaign for ethical responsibility
- Strengthening the Judicial Integrity Board
- Operationalizing the Judiciary Marshals Office
Innovation
Under innovation, the SC hopes to achieve four objectives.
The first is to modernize court processes and operations. To do this, the SC plans to capitalize on artificial intelligence for legal research. The judiciary’s e-library will also be redeveloped to include this AI-enabled technology.
The SC also wants to establish a judiciary online learning platform, sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need to explore alternative ways of training judges and court personnel.
Plans are also underway to develop an “eCourt System Version 2.0.” This would include functionalities like a portal for clients, payments, full automation of raffling cases, and court calendars, among others.
The judiciary also plans to revise rules of procedures to integrate local context and “keep them relevant to the times and to advances in technology.” All court issuances and guidelines will also be collated into a single repository.
Another objective in innovation is to strengthen information and communications technology (ICT) governance, management, and operations. This can be done by developing a judiciary management information systems (MIS) operations manual.
The judiciary also wants to make effective use of data in policy and decision-making. This would include the training of the Court Management Office in data management, analytics, warehousing, and presentation.
Lastly, under innovation, the SPJI also mentions wanting to upgrade information sharing in the justice system by employing a redesign, coordination, and collaboration model by revitalizing the National Justice Information System.
Access
The old saying, “justice delayed is justice denied” has “not lost its sting,” the SC said. The High Court hopes to make justice accessible in a general sense, but particularly among the Muslim and women sectors as well.
Poverty remains a big reason why many Filipinos cannot access legal services, the Asean Today report said. And even if they had access to a public attorney, these public attorneys are undermanned and have huge backlogs.
In enhancing public access to information and legal services, the SC hopes to develop intelligent platforms for self-help services, public assistance, and public access to court-related information services. This includes making some court services available through social media.
The SPJI also highlights the need to strengthen legal aid initiatives. Some activities for this include providing a database of free legal aid providers, and reviewing the Enhanced Justice on Wheels program.
Shari’ah justice
Meanwhile, the SC plans to strengthen the foundations of Shari’ah justice. According to the SPJI, of the existing 56 Shari’ah courts, only 27 are organized and operational.
The judiciary plans to constitute a committee on Shari’ah, and conduct a review of the Shari’ah justice system. It plans to study the expansion of Shari’ah court mandates, and the strengthening of the Shari’ah legal education system.
The Shari’ah rules of court also need to be reviewed to guide judges and legal practitioners under the Bangsamoro Organic Law.
Gender fairness, inclusivity
The SC also aims to establish more gender fairness and inclusivity in the courts. Some initiatives for this include adopting guidelines for gender-fair language in the judiciary, and gender-fair courtroom etiquette.
In 2021, the SC reported 6,760 newly filed cases of violence against women and children (VAWC). Decided or resolved cases amounted to 5,967. Still, 10,883 cases of VAWC remained pending by December 31.
Court workers will also undergo gender sensitivity and inclusivity orientations and workshops. There are also plans to issue guidelines for courts to become more sensitive to victims, such as women and children, to prevent their re-victimization.
The SC also admits that patriarchy and masculinist norms heavily influence Philippine legal structures. In light of this, the SC plans to commission a study on feminism in the judiciary. This would help, for instance, point out how gender biases, gender inequalities, and discrimination manifest in decisions (e.g., stereotyping men and women in gender-based violence).
In the 2022 World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index, the Philippines saw some improvement in adhering to the rule of law. However, the country remained among one of the worst in Asia.
Read the full Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations 2022-2027 here. – with reports from Septian Marhenanto/Rappler.com