DOJ asks SC to revoke judicial affidavit rule

MANILA, Philippines - Government prosecutors have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to revoke a new rule allowing affidavits in place of direct testimony of witnesses in criminal cases.

In a letter to Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, Prosecutor General Claro Arellano said the judicial affidavit rule (JAR) will not solve the congestion and delays in courts.

“The implementation of the JAR is not the solution to these problems,” read the letter.

“On the contrary, the JAR will only add to these concerns. Not only will it unjustly burden the prosecutors, defense lawyers and private practitioners but criminal cases will be resolved not on the basis of the evidence brought forth by the parties but rather due to mere technicalities.”

Arellano said the JAR has not yet conclusively shown positive results in pilot courts in Quezon City since April last year.

The ad hoc committee sought last month for six more months to complete their report on the success of the guidelines, he added.

It would still be necessary to test the JAR’s efficacy in a nationwide scale even if successfully tested in Quezon City courts, he added.

Arellano said the prosecutors, a major stakeholder in implementing JAR, were not consulted on the issue.

The JAR has several repercussions in the performance of prosecutors of their duties, he added.

Arellano said prosecutors have limited time to prepare affidavits since they are already burdened with heavy workload.

“JAR will result in numerous dismissals of cases due to technicalities,” he said. “Judges also cannot observe the demeanor/credibility of witnesses.”

Under Administrative Matter No. 12-8-8-SC, the JAR was set to be implemented last Jan. 2.

Implementation was suspended at the last minute following an objection from the Prosecutors League of the Philippines (PLP).

The suspension order came after the justices decided to first tackle a proposal of Associate Justice Roberto Abad “for the deferment of the application of the Judicial Affidavit Rule for one year from 1 January 2013 to 1 January 2014 under certain conditions.”

It was learned that Abad, together with Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin, met with PLP officers last Dec. 21 and agreed to defer implementation of the new rule pending action of the full court on the proposed one-year suspension.

The PLP only wanted a revision of the JAR.   

It provides: “When a party (whether plaintiff or defendant) questions his own witness, he no longer needs to place the witness on the witness stand.”

As a substitute, the party or his lawyer merely submits the written sworn statement of his witness in a question-and-answer format.

It also requires each party to attach all his documentary evidence to the affidavit, which must be submitted at least five days before the pre-trial or preliminary conference of the case.

The JAR was said to be effective in reducing the time used for presenting the testimonies of witnesses by about two-thirds after a pilot program in the Quezon City courts.