Judiciary marshals office to open next year

MANILA, Philippines — There are no “major challenges” besetting the creation of the Office of the Judiciary Marshals (OJM), which will be tasked with protecting the judiciary including its judges and other personnel, the Supreme Court (SC) said yesterday.

Associate Justice Midas Marquez said that by the first quarter of 2023, the SC would start the appointment process for the major posts of the OJM.

Among the first appointees is the Chief Marshal, who will oversee the office as well as three deputy marshals – one each for the OJM’s offices in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

“Thereafter, we will be forming the different units under the office,” Marquez told journalists.

Marquez said the budget for the OJM’s creation has been laid out in the 2023 General Appropriations Act.

“We don’t see any major challenges to the creation of the office by the first quarter of next year,” he added.

An SC committee, headed by Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda, is finalizing the implementing rules and regulations of the law.

Calls for the immediate activation of the OJM became prominent recently and most notably during the red-tagging of a Manila trial court judge by former anti-communist insurgency task force spokesperson Lorraine Badoy.

The Judiciary Marshals Act was signed into law in April.