Two years after implementing the five-year Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations (SPJI) that was launched in 2022, the Supreme Court (SC) gathered its various stakeholders and development partners yesterday in a forum at the Manila Hotel to assess the gains achieved and chart forward directions.
The SPJI is the SC’s action program to address institutional challenges using four guiding principles: the Judiciary’s delivery of justice will be (1) timely and fair, (2) transparent and accountable, (3) equal and inclusive, and (4) technology adaptive. Three major outcomes are sought to be achieved: efficiency, innovation, and access.
Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo has emphasized that the SPJI is the product of the collective efforts of all the 15 SC Justices, who are all equally invested in the SPJI, guaranteeing its continuity. It is the outcome of broad-based consultation with judges and court personnel, lawyers, and local government officials. SPJI has also been presented in various international conferences attended by the SC Justices, such as the United Nations Environmental Program in the World Law Congress, the Open Government Summit in Estonia, and in the Judicial Integrity Network ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Judges Conference.
Based on the Manila Bulletin’s news stories on SPJI, the SC, among other gains, has accomplished:
— Adoption of the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability (CPRA) to guide lawyers on ethical conduct in the new era of law practice;
— Approval of the Rules on Expedited Procedures in the first level courts (municipal and metropolitan trial courts) that increased the threshold amount to ₱1 million in small claims cases with service of notices through phone calls, SMS and instant messaging software applications;
— Enhancement of the use of video conferencing in the trial of cases;
— Decentralization of the functions of the Office of the Court Administrator by creating the Office of Regional Court Managers (ORCMs) to unburden trial court judges of administrative tasks so they can devote more time to adjudication of cases;
— Approval of the rule that would simplify, reduce legal and procedural hurdles, and facilitate the naturalization as Filipino citizens of refugees and stateless persons;
— Adoption of the Rules on the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020 and Related Laws, with appropriate safeguards, including prohibition of online surveillance like wiretapping of conversations, intercepting social media accounts, and a 36-hour maximum time frame for detention from the time of arrest without written authority from the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC);
— Adoption of the new Guidelines on Submission of Electronic Copies of Pleadings and Other Court Submissions to facilitate the transition to electronic filing as the primary mode of filing pleadings before the trial courts; and
— Finalization of the rules on the Unified Legal Aid Service (ULAS) that would provide enhanced access to the country’s justice system of the marginalized and the underprivileged.
Indeed, the Supreme Court has achieved important gains over the first two years of the SPJI’s implementation. With its other key initiatives gathering momentum and eliciting broad-based support, attainment of the goal to render swift and impartial delivery of justice for all is within reach.