SC to deploy judges-at-large

MANILA, Philippines - Soon, the rather derogatory term “at-large” will no longer be limited to wanted persons or fugitives, but will also be attached to judges, in light of the scarcity of magistrates manning local courts nationwide.  

“Judges-at-large” will refer to judges who do not have permanent salas and can be detailed by the Supreme Court (SC) to any regional, city or municipal court in the Philippines, which has at least 1,500 courts across Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. 

“Court dockets are severely congested, as hundreds of thousands of cases remain pending for action or resolution and these keep on accumulating at an alarming rate,” MATA party-list Rep. Tricia Velasco-Catera said.  

Being members of the House of Representatives, the administration legislator said it is their sworn duty to “enact laws that guarantee every Filipino citizen’s right to expeditious resolution of cases.”  

The House sub-committee on judicial reforms, chaired by former Court of Appeals justice and now Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso, has unanimously passed proposed measures on creating new positions for magistrates who will not have permanent salas. 

Veloso said the three measures aimed at amending Batas Pambansa Bilang 129, or the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980, will address “one of the main problems of the country’s justice system.” 

The bills propose the creation of 100 judges-at-large positions for the regional trial courts and 50 more for the municipal trial courts. 

Catera noted that dockets remain clogged and congested despite the SC’s commendable programs, such as the Enhanced Justice on Wheels and Small-Scale Courts, to address the backlog due to recurring vacancies in the judiciary. 

She said that the positions “will not only alleviate the load of numerous lower court judges but, more importantly, ensure that the litigants throughout the country are not deprived of the fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution.”  

Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, son of SC Justice Presbitero Velasco, noted the importance of the judges-at-large positions in helping the courts effectively dispense justice in the country. 

Velasco cited Article III, Section 16 of the 1987 Constitution and Article VIII, Section 15 which states: “All cases or matters filed after the effectivity of this Constitution must be decided or resolved within 24 months from date of submission for the SC and, unless reduced by the SC, 12 months for all lower collegiate courts, and three months for all other lower courts.”