THE House of Representatives has backed the enactment of several measures creating ‘’judges-at-large’’ positions in a bid to address the crucial need for the speedy disposition of cases.
Judges-at-large refer to judges who do not have permanent salas and can be detailed by the Supreme Court to any regional, city, or municipal courts in the country.
Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso, House sub-committee on judicial reforms chairperson, underscored the importance of the bills in addressing one of the main problems of the country’s justice system.
The sub-committee cited several proposals on the subject, including House Bill 167 or the proposed “Act Amending Batas Pambansa Bilang 129, otherwise known as ‘An Act Reorganizing the Judiciary” authored by Rep. Tricia Nicole Velasco-Catera of MATA party-list; HB 1513 or the proposed “Act Creating the Positions for Judges-At-Large, Amending BP 129.” by Rep. Roy Loyola of Cavite and HB 2308 or the proposed “Act Amending BP 129” by Rep. Lord Allan Velasco of Marinduque.
HBs 167 and 1513 both seek to create 50 positions of Regional Trial Court judges-at-large and 50 positions of Municipal Trial Court judges-at-large while HB 2308 proposes to establish 100 RTC and 100 MTC judges-at-large positions.
Lawmakers and members of the Veloso sub-committee unanimously agreed to instead create 100 judges-at-large positions for the Regional Trial Court and 50 positions for the Municipal Trial Court after a series of deliberations on the measure.
During the discussion, the bills’ authors stressed the urgent need to create judges-at-large, citing the decades-old problem of clogged dockets of the lower courts, which has been causing enormous delays in the resolution of cases.
Saying that justice delayed is justice denied, they cited Article III, Section 16 of the Constitution, which states that “All persons shall have the right to a speedy disposition of their cases before all judicial, quasi-judicial, or administrative bodies.”
The authors explained that the main causes of congestion are lack of judges; heavy inflow of cases in Metro Manila and other cities and the use of regular judges as assisting or acting judges, which has proven to be unproductive because they do not have sufficient time to devote to the cases in vacant or congested courts since they have their own respective salas to attend to.
Catera said it is the sworn duty of legislators to enact laws that guarantee every Filipino citizen’s right to the expeditious resolution of cases. She explained that at present, court dockets are severely congested as hundreds of thousands of cases remain pending for action or resolution and these keep on accumulating at an alarming rate.
Catera praised the judiciary for initiating measures such as the Enhanced Justice on Wheels (EJOW) and Small-Scale Courts to deal with court congestion. She also commended the legislature for enacting Republic Act 8493 or the Speedy Trial Act, which similarly attempted to limit delay by providing time limits for the various stages of legislation.
However, Catera emphasized that court dockets have remained clogged and congested partly due to the recurring widespread vacancies in the judiciary.
She explained that the creation of judges-at-large positions will not only alleviate the load of numerous lower court judges but more importantly, would ensure that the litigants throughout the country are not deprived of the fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution.
For his part, Velasco said that or his part explained that establishing the judges-at-large positions is necessary to address the clogging of court dockets and will greatly help in effectively dispensing justice in the country.
He highlighted Article III, Section 16 of the Constitution and that of Article VIII, Section 15, which states, among others, that “All cases or matters filed after the effectivity of this Constitution must be decided or resolved within 24 months from date of submission for the Supreme Court, and, unless reduced by the Supreme Court, 12 months for all lower collegiate courts, and three months for all other lower courts.”
Supreme Court Associate Justice Presbiterio Velasco, one of the resource persons invited by the sub-committee, said the Supreme Court welcomes the filing of the bills, saying the creation of the judges-at-large positions will greatly help the court in speedily adjudicating cases.
