The Supreme Court (SC) has extended until February 1, 2022 the filing of required pleadings and other court submissions which will fall due this month of January in all court—from the SC down to the lowest courts.
In a circular, Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo stressed that the Court was prompted to extend the filing until February 1 due to the alarming number of COVID-19 infections and the effects of super typhoon ‘Odette.’
The Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City meanwhile is closed to the public until Jan. 19 due to the “disturbing” increase in the number of its employees infected with COVID-19.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires issued a memorandum circular, citing the official reports from the Office’s Safety and Health Committee.
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines also sought for the extension within which to file the pertinent pleading before the courts.
The SC had earlier ordered all courts in areas under Alert Level 3 with heightened restrictions to operate only on skeleton force starting today, Monday, Jan. 10.
Trial courts were allowed to hold hearings via video conferencing on urgent matters.
Ombudsman Martires said there is a need to strictly implement isolation and quarantine protocol orders, and to arrest the transmission of infection among workers.
“All offices of the Ombudsman in Quezon City will be closed until Jan. 19, 2022 unless otherwise directed, effective Jan. 20, 2022, a skeleton workforce shall report daily at the Public Assistance Bureau, Central Records Division, CREMEB-Luzon, CREMEB-MOLEO, OSP Records Office,
Finance and Management Information Office, General Administrative Office, Management Information System Service and the Human Resource and Management Division,” the memo read.
Martires directed all department heads to ensure that the reporting employees have no COVID-19 symptoms, have negative RT-PCR or antigen testing results (if the testing was undertaken), and were not exposed to a COVID-19 infected person within 10 days prior to reporting to office.
The official time of the skeletal workforce from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and that employees not included in the listings shall continue to work from home permissible under the civil service rules, he cited.
There would be no filing of pleadings, motions, affidavits and other relevant documents before all offices of the O budsman central office, he noted, saying the period of filing begin to run on Jan. 20. With Rio Araja
