The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) in Quezon City is still physically closed until Wednesday, Jan. 12, due to increased number of personnel infected with COVID-19 or exposed to infected persons.
Ombudsman Samuel R. Martires said all personnel “shall adopt the work-from-home arrangement permissible under the civil service rules.”
“The filing of pleadings, motions, affidavits and other relevant documents before all offices of the Ombudsman in Quezon City shall be deemed interrupted and the period of filing such shall begin to run the next working day,” Martires said in his public advisory.
He also said that “applicants for OMB clearances may still deposit their applications at drop boxes located at the OMB, Quezon City entrance gate.”
The National Capital Region (NCR), the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal, and 14 other areas nationwide had been placed under the more restrictive COVID Alert Level 3 until Jan. 15.
The 14 other areas are Baguio City in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR); Dagupan City in Region 1; City of Santiago and Cagayan in Region 2; Angeles City, Bataan, Olongapo City, Pampanga and Zambales in Region 3; Batangas and Lucena City in Region 4-A; Naga City in Region 5; Iloilo City in Region 6; and Lapu-lapu City in Region 7.
All courts under Alert Level 3 have been ordered by the Supreme Court (SC) to keep skeleton workforce reporting physically in their offices so as not to paralyze court operations.
The SC had even directed all courts nationwide to extend until Feb. 1, 2022 the filing of required pleadings and other court submissions which will fall due this month of January.