To let justice roll swiftly
The appointment of Maria Lourdes Sereno as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by President Aquino on Aug. 24, 2012 caused no little discomfort among her peers. Whatever the reasons — she was relatively unknown, had no law practice record, although she served as associate justice of the Supreme Court for two years, there were other justices waiting in the wings, she would be staying at the post for 20 long years — those have now been nipped.
From the Stands watched her actions and articulations, and has been impressed. You would, too, if you study where she came from.
She was born on July 2, 1960 in Manila to a father with roots in Siasi, Sulu, and to a public school teacher. She has bachelor’s degrees in economics from the Ateneo de Manila University and law from the University of the Philippines College of Law where she graduated class valedictorian in 1984 (that alone is impressive). I have no record of her grade in that year’s bar exams. But no matter. She earned her master of laws from the University of Michigan Law School in 1993. At the time of her appointment by P-Noy as associate justice of the Supreme Court, she was executive director of the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center, president of Accesslaw Inc., had taught at the UP College of Law for 19 years, and served as a consultant at the World Bank and the US Agency for International Development.
My first time to hear her speak was at the induction of new members and forum of the Manila Overseas Press Club two weeks ago. She looked smart in a dark grey tailored suit, was beautiful, as master of ceremonies Mike Toledo described her. They had been law classmates; Mike wound up in public relations, and is now an executive of the country’s biggest mining companies.
She is a visionary, said the dashing Jose Manuel Romualdez, MOPC president and Philippine STAR columnist. The chief, he said, “is doing a lot to help restore the trust and confidence of the people in the judiciary today. Many describe her as the voice of sobriety amidst the din — as seen in her rejection of calls to lead a transition government, appealing for calm and sobriety instead in the aftermath of the January 25 Mamasapano tragedy.”
“The judiciary,” CJ Sereno replied, “ is required by the Constitution not to prejudge cases that will be brought before it, and that each individual case will have to satisfy the ‘actual case or controversy’ requirement.”
“By its mental make-up, the Supreme Court will not self-destruct, but will — if it needs to — take corrective measures to prevent the corrosion of its institutional place in the constitutional order of things.”
“The pull-and-tug of social forces that shape the development of our country will elicit a form of reaction from the Supreme Court, which happens to be a collegial body. It is made up of women and men of different persuasions who, although guided by some basic principles of constitutional interpretation, see from different angles the issues and arguments presented by the various litigants as they relate to constitutional standards of governance.”
She cited a trend running through recent court decisions — “that of validating the vast powers of government with the aim of bringing about the betterment of the welfare of the people. When hallowed constitutional rights are threatened, or when express constitutional lines are shown to have been likely breached, the Court takes a closer look at how government exercises this power of governance.”
The chief spoke of the reforms the Court is undertaking. But the reforms are slowed down by the question of resources available to the judiciary. The Court’s share of the national budget has never yet exceeded decimal proportions; it has not reached one percent, and is in fact on a downtrend. Last year the judiciary received a 0.778 percent share from the national budget. It had originally proposed a budget of 1.225 percent of the 2015 national budget of P2.6 trillion.
Contrary to public perception, the Court has posted its collections on its website, and the audit reports on the judiciary’s expenditures are posted in the Commission on Audit website.
In its program of transparency, it has released through media announcements, the removal, disbarment, disqualification or suspension from office of judges, lawyers, notaries and court personnel, which are available on its website. The hope is that the announcements “create the chilling effect . . . to make judges and lawyers believe that it does not pay to do wrong, because this Court is seriously after cleansing the ranks of the bench and the bar of misfits and scalawags.”
Another reform initiated by the Court is making transparent the oral arguments before the Court by allowing the citizens to tune in to live and recorded audio streaming.
To give the public, including the press, more access to its Court system, the Sereno Court has piloted an electronic court system in Quezon City. By using the portal available in the lobby, the press can simply enter any name or case title in order to find its docket number, status, and assignment. In the future, this portal would be readily accessible through any internet access point, CJ Sereno said.
The electronic court system has allowed judges and clerks of court to manage their courts more efficiently. By the end of this year, there will be 286 e-court; these courts carry 25 per cent of the total case load nationwide.
On docket decongestion, there are around 600,000 pending cases in the first-and-second-level courts. The goal is to reduce that figure by 30 per cent in five years. To achieve this backbreaking case load, several reform programs and projects are being implemented with several more in the lifeline.
First, the Hustisyeah!Volunteer lawyers, law graduates and law students helped inventory court dockets to weed out dormant and dismissible cases, and formulate plans for their implementation. As of December 2014, some 33 Quezon City courts reduced their case load by 29.28 per cent, or from the 32,173 as of 2012, to 22,753 as of December 2014.
Second, the Enhanced Justice on Wheels (EJOW) program, chaired by Justice Mariano del Castillo, was started in 2004, and resulted in the dismissal of 3,885 cases, and the release of 8,355 prisoners.
A third is the passage of several Rules of Court to expedite proceedings in the resolution of cases. An example is the Amended Rule of Procedure for Small Claims Cases covering money claims that do not exceed P100,000 exclusive of interests and costs. One feature is the prohibition against the appearance of lawyers. The small Claims Procedures were developed to provide quick, simple and inexpensive means of dispute settlement in courts. A total of 74,019 small claims cases (as of December 2013) were recorded and identified from a survey of 184 provinces and cities and 695 courts. Of these cases, only 15 per cent remain pending. Small claims cases are disposed of within an average of 75 days.
There are other reforms being initiated in the Highest Tribunal today, giving us citizens the assurance that justice in this country is no longer justice- delayed-justice denied, but justice-fair- and-swiftly-resolved.
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