The Supreme Court has announced the opening for application of 50 of the 150 new positions for judges-at-large or roving judges who will be mandated to handle and speed up resolution of cases of trial courts with overloaded dockets.
In an en banc resolution made public on Friday, the Judicial and Bar Council will now start accepting applications and nominations for the 50 new positions—30 for regional trial judges-at-large and 20 for municipal trial judges-at-large.
Deadline for applications or nominations will be on Feb. 11.
The seven-member council concurrently chaired by Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta will conduct public interview of the applicants or nominees as part of its vetting process before submitting at least three candidates for each of new post for trial court judge-at-large.
The law, Republic Act No. 11459 or the Judges-at-Large Act of 2019, was signed by the President in August last year. It mandated the creation of 100 new positions for regional trial judges-at-large and 50 new posts for municipal trial judges-at-large.
Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez recommended the partial implementation of RA 11459 “since only 50 of the 150 positions were funded by Congress in the judiciary’s 2020 budget.”
Marquez said the other 100 positions are expected to be funded on 2021 and thus the posts will be open for application when the funds are ready.
Under the law, the regional trial judges-at-large will be assigned as acting or assisting judges to any regional trial court (RTC), while the municipal trial judges-at-large will be assigned to any first-level courts in the country — such as municipal trial court (MTC), municipal circuit trial court (MCTC), municipal trial court in cities (MTCC) or metropolitan trial court (MeTC) — as public interest may require. Judges-at-large have no permanent stations.
RA 11459 amended Batas Pambansa No. 129, known as the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980.
According to the Office of the Court Administrator, as of December 2018, there were 8,852 pending cases with the SC; 19,732 with the Court of Appeals (CA); 5,237 with the Sandiganbayan; 1,353 with the Court of Tax Appeal (CTA); 546,182 with the RTCs and 160,153 with the first level courts.
Under the law, judges-at-large are entitled to salaries, privileges, allowances, emoluments, benefits, rank and title of an RTC or MTC judge.
The law also provides that only natural-born citizens of the Philippines, at least 35 years of age, and who have practiced law in the country for 10 years are qualified as regional trial judges-at-large.
For municipal trial judges-at-large, the law mandates that only natural-born citizen of the Philippines, at least 30 years of age, and have practiced law in the Philippines for five years are qualified.