SC to implement new rules

CEBU, Philippines - To address the congestion and delay of cases in the lower courts, the Supreme Court is planning to implement new rules of procedure for civil and criminal cases before the year ends.

Associate Justice Roberto Abad said the new rules would help lessen the number of years to resolve cases.

The proposed rules for hearing and adjudicating disputes seek to limit hearings into two, the preliminary conference and an adjudication hearing.

According to Supreme Court’s explanatory note, “the preliminary conference will identify the factual and legal issues and ensure the submission of the judicial affidavits of the parties and their witnesses, including documentary evidence.”

 With the new rules, the SC pointed out that “the adjudication hearing will assemble all the parties and their witnesses and examine them based on affidavits in a free-flowing fashion but strictly in the order in which the issues have been identified.”

Abad said after the examination of the witnesses, the court will announce immediately its oral decision and the written decision will be released within 15 days.

He said the new rules will be adopted first by the pilot courts before it will be implemented to all courts before the year ends. He added that such rules were implemented in other counties and it was proven effective.

Abad said the preliminary conference will take two hours and the adjudication hearing will take half a day.

“With this new set of rules, it can hasten the case. Instead of five to ten years, it will only take a year or less,” he said.

However, with the new set of rules, some practitioners have clashing opinions.

Lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna, in a text message to The FREEMAN said “the proposed rules for hearing and adjudication must be studied carefully and applied on a selective basis first as it dynamically changes the established norms of the rules of court.”

He added, “it expedites the dispensation of justice but might unduly put more load on the overly burdened judges of the Municipal Trial Courts and Regional Trial Courts.”

Lawyer Benjamin Militar who attended the forum yesterday at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) office in Cebu, told The FREEMAN they should not be in a hurry because the delay of cases are due to lack of judges and have case loads.

Lawyer Rameses Villagonzalo said the proposed rule must be enforced strictly to hasten the resolution of cases.  (FREEMAN)