SC suspends enforcement of Judicial Affidavit Rule

CEBU, Philippines - Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez has issued a circular suspending the enforcement of the Judicial Affidavit Rule in criminal prosecutions due to the request of the Prosecutors League of the Philippines to defer the implementation.

“Considering that the Court en banc will not meet until 8 Jan. 2013, Justice Abad is of the considered view that it may be more prudent for the justices, judges and arbiters concerned to suspend the implementation of the judicial affidavit rule in criminal cases,” the circular reads.

Earlier, the Supreme Court (SC) En Banc promulgated a judicial affidavit rule to be implemented on January 1, 2013.

The circular was issued on December 27, 2012.

On December 12, 2012, the Prosecutors League of the Philippines sent a letter addressed to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justices requesting the deferment of the implementation of the affidavit rule for at least one year.

Following the request, Justice Roberto Abad together with Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin met the officers of the Prosecutors League on December 21, 2012.

After the meeting, Justice Abad recommended to the Court En Banc the deferment of the application of the affidavit rule for one year. However, this is subject for a resolution.

The SC promulgated the affidavit rule in order to answer the problems of case congestion and to shorten the proceedings.

The affidavit rule requires all pleadings, motions, and others to be written in single space with a one-and-a-half space between paragraphs, using readable font.

The judicial affidavit contains direct testimonies of the witnesses which will be used by the adverse party as basis for cross-examination. The party who presents witnesses can have a re-direct examination.

The affidavit rule will apply to Metropolitan Trial Courts, Municipal Trial Courts in Cities, Municipal Circuit Trial Courts, Shari’a Circuit Courts, Regional Trial Courts, Shari’a District Courts, Sandiganbayan, Court of Tax Appeals, Court of Appeals and Shari’a Appellate Courts.

Provincial Prosecutor Jane Petralba told The FREEMAN that the implementation of the judicial affidavit is difficult in the municipal court level because usually it is the police who execute a “sworn attestation.”

Under the rule, particularly Section 4-Sworn Attestation of a Lawyer, it states that the judicial affidavit “shall contain a sworn attestation at the end, executed by a lawyer who conducted or supervised the examination of the witness.  Petralba said this rule needs to be studied further. —/MIT (FREEMAN)