DOJ reintroduces mediation program

CEBU, Philippines — The Department of Justice has revived its National Prosecution Service (NPS) mediation program.

Cebu City is one of its pilot areas in the implementation of the rules of the NPS mediation program as provided for under Republic Act 9285, otherwise known as the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Act of 2004.

Cebu City Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Rhodna Bacatan will serve as the mediation coordinator.

Funded by the European Union, the Office of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (OADR) of DOJ and Governance for Justice (GO JUST) has an ongoing five-day extensive training on mediation participated by Cebu City prosecutors, lawyers and private professionals.

The first batch of 35 participants has completed their trainings last Friday while the second batch of the same number will begin today.

Trained mediators will undergo a 40-hour internship program as standard of the OADR in order to be included in the roster of accredited mediators.

During the first day of the training, DOJ Undersecretary Adrian Ferdinand Sugay apprised the participants of the growing volume of cases that need to be disposed citing that in Cebu City alone it has reached 13,461 cases.

Though Sugay said not all cases are “mediatable.”

The ADR Act of 2004 provides mandatory mediation in a complaint involving the amount not exceeding P200,000 which include theft, qualified theft, estafa, criminal negligence resulting in damage to property and violations of Batas Pambansa Bilang 22, or the Bouncing Checks Law.

Lawyer Hector Soliman of GO JUST said the objective of the program is to facilitate the decongestion of dockets by mediation and for the swift and fair administration of justice.

Soliman said they see the need to reintroduce the mediation program in the earlier stage of preliminary investigation.

Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon also emphasized the end objective of correcting the mistakes in the past in implementing the mediation program for the second attempt to be successful.

During the training, the Rules on Mediation in the NPS were adequately discussed.

There is a wide spectrum of conflict resolution that are available, from conflict management, dialogue, negotiation and mediation that promote party autonomy, and arbitration, adjudication and litigation that are resolved following rules and rights.

The important characteristics of these conflict resolution alternatives discussed are party autonomy and voluntariness of the conflicting parties; neutrality and impartiality of the mediator; and confidentiality of the information discussed in mediation.

The NPS mediation program is separate from the Supreme Court’s court-annexed mediation (CAM) program introduced in 2001.

Report said that it has achieved a remarkable success rate of 62 percent, one of the highest in Asia.

While the NPS mediation program is the prosecution level, the CAM program is also working to help the courts in achieving prompt resolution of disputes and in declogging its dockets. (FREEMAN)