OCTOPUSES, unlike magistrates, would have six other arms free. But with resolving controversial issues on one hand and instituting new reforms on the other, it seems the justices of the Supreme Court (SC) have their hands full this year.

Controversial

CHIEF Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno has acknowledged the need to immediately address the expected deluge of poll cases, as the May 9 national and local elections near.

Sereno told reporters the justices have started preparing for these cases by already “undertaking preliminary research and some preliminary reading” on the reported issues.

“I think that whatever decision that we may make on the petitions that are filed before us and that will be filed before us, it must be with the utmost wisdom that we should look at these things,” Sereno said.

“But the impact of whatever decision will come out from us, as well as the election itself, will have long-term consequences for our country. It will measure our ability to really be a modern democracy.”

Poe, Edca

ONE of the election cases pending in the SC involves the petitions filed by Sen. Grace Poe, seeking the reversal of the resolutions by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc nullifying her certificate of candidacy for her failure to prove that she is a natural-born Filipino citizen and for lack of the 10-year residency requirement.

The SC has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO), enjoining the Comelec from implementing its resolution on Poe’s disqualification and set her petitions for oral arguments on January 19.

The SC will resume its regular session, after its one-month holiday break, on January 12.

Also on the plate of the magistrates is the issue on the constitutionality of the controversial Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) signed by the Philippines and the US in April 2014.

The SC was expected to release a decision on this case last month. It is now expected the SC will release its ruling on the matter early this year.

There are two main petitions pending before the SC against the Edca. The petitions were filed by a group, led by former Sen. Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tañada, and militant party-list lawmakers led by Party-list Reps. Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna.

The SC held oral arguments on the matter in November last year, and the case has been up for resolution since then.

The petitioners alleged that the government committed a grave abuse of discretion when it entered into the Edca, as it constitutes a derogation of the country’s dignity and an unconscionable sellout of sovereignty and that it contravenes the country’s national interests, as it is “primarily motivated by the US strategic rebalancing toward Asia and is, therefore, in the service of US security and economic interests.”

They added that contrary to the claim of the respondents, the Edca is “not in implementation or furtherance of the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the two countries and the Visiting Forces Agreement, and that the country might once again become a staging ground for the deployment of US ships, aircraft and even missile systems overseas, because of the prepositioning and the deployment of materiel allowed under the Edca.”

The petitioners also said the respondents yielded to the US forces the operational control of agreed location for construction activities, and the operational control and defense of these agreed locations.

The government, on the other hand, insisted that the agreement is a valid executive agreement that could stand even without the concurrence of the Senate.

Under the Edca, the US will be allowed to build structures; store, as well as preposition, weapons, defense supplies and materiel; station troops, civilian personnel and defense contractors; transit and station vehicles, vessels and aircraft for a period of 10 years.

Train, Torre

ANOTHER important case the SC is expected to tackle this year includes the petitions seeking to nullify the P70-billion concession agreement that the government signed with the Light Rail Manila Corp. for the extension of Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 to Cavite, a.k.a. Cavite Extension Project.

The first petition was filed by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and the Confederation for the Unity, Recognition, and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage). Another petition was filed by lawyer Salvador Belaro Jr.

The Court had earlier directed the government to justify the legality of the agreement.

The petitioners argued that the concession agreement should be declared invalid for its failure to comply with provisions of the Constitution and other existing laws.

They pointed out that the contract “is loaded with sovereign guarantees that are contrary to law and detrimental to the people.”

The concession agreement covers the privatization of the operation and maintenance of the current LRT Line 1. It also covers the construction and extension of the existing LRT Line 1 from 20.7 kilometers to 32.4 km by providing trains originating from the end of Baclaran, traversing the municipalities of Parañaque and Las Piñas, and ending in Bacoor, Cavite.

The SC is also expected to resolve within the year the issue involving the construction of the Torre de Manila building, which is being opposed in a petition filed by the Knights of Rizal.

The Knights of Rizal is seeking the demolition of the property, as it blocks the iconic sight line of the monument of National Hero Jose Rizal in the the Luneta Park.

The DMCI-Project Developers Inc. (DMCI-PDI), which was behind the construction of the building, made its final appeal last October with the Court to lift the TRO it issued on June 16, 2015.

The DMCI insists the construction of the property did not and does not violate any law, rule on easement or requirement of aerial navigation. The company also said the construction was duly authorized by the concerned national and local government agencies.

All the parties have submitted their respective memoranda on the case, and the SC is expected to rule on the matter soon.

Decongestion

ASIDE from resolving important cases, the SC has unveiled a set of reforms to be implemented this year in a bid to speed up resolution of cases and declog court dockets.

Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said the Revised Rules on Small Claims Cases will take effect in February. The rules mandate, among others, an increase in maximum claims, from P100,000 to P200,000.

The SC magistrates are now also studying the proposal to increase the amount of threshold of small claims involving commercial disputes, from P100,000 to P250,000.

Speaking before a forum, SC Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe said increasing the threshold would mean more commercial disputes falling within the classification of small-claims court.

Prior to the revision, the small-claims cases system covers money claims that do not exceed P100,000, exclusive of interests and costs.

Sereno earlier noted that records show a 75-percent “disposal” rate of 74,019 small-claims cases.

Statistics from the Court’s database also show that small-claims cases are disposed of within an average of 75 days.

The SC is, likewise, set to widen the implementation of its so-called assisting courts project, where adjacent courts with manageable caseloads are designated assisting courts to nearby courts within insufficient branches to address caseload.

Thus, Manila, which has 30 branches of the Metropolitan trial courts (MeTCs), has been designated as assisting courts to Makati City, which only had seven MeTCs, and to Quezon City, which only has 13 MeTCs, Perlas-Bernabe explained.

Likewise, Cebu City’s 20 Regional Trial Court have been designated as assisting courts to Mandaue City, which only has three RTCs, and to Lapu-Lapu City, which only has three RTCs.

“This means that some cases filed and raffled in QC and Makati are heard, tried and decided in and by their counterpart courts in Manila,” Perlas-Bernabe said. “[It would be the] same thing for Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, [they will be] assisted by Cebu City.”

eCourt

THE SC is also expected to expand its eCourt project, which was pilot-tested in Quezon City and rolled out last year in Angeles City, Lapu-Lapu and Cebu City, and Davao City.

This year the eCourt project will cover Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasig and Manila.

The eCourt is an electronic end-to-end case-management system. It organizes cases digitally, from filing of complaints to resolution and enforcement.

The project aims to modernize and automate the Court processes and render case-management paperless.

It is envisioned to promote the Court’s call for transparency.

Beginning this year, the Court will hire 635 “court-decongestion officers” as part of the “Hustisyeah” project of the Judiciary, which is a one-time case-decongestion project that targets overburdened courts.

Under the program, an inventory of cases in that Court will be connected by a team from the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA). It will be assisted by a team from The Asia Foundation (TAF). Later, a case-decongestion plan will be formulated with the judge.

The plan will be implemented through the assistance of CDOs hired by TAF.

Retirement

BUT as the High Tribunal gets ready to tackle these issues and cases head-on, one of its magistrates prepares for his early retirement due to deteriorating health condition.

Having more hands could help. But with one of the magistrates retiring this year, an octopus remains envious.

Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr. has requested for an early retirement on January 16, but the SC has yet to officially announce it has accepted such request. Villarama was supposed to retire on April 14, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.

But in his letter to Sereno, the magistrate requested to avail himself of optional retirement due to “deteriorating health condition.” Villarama had a double-knee metal implantation in 2013 and a cataract operation in 2014.

Nonetheless, the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) has already scheduled on January 7 and 8 public interviews of the 16 aspirants for his post. The JBC accepts, screens and comes up with a short list of nominees for vacancies in the judiciary and Office of the Ombudsman.

Among those to be grilled by the seven-man JBC on the first day are Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justices Apolinario Bruselas Jr., Rosmari Carandang and Mariflor Punzalan-Castillo. Also scheduled for interview are Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Maria Cristina Cornejo, Justice Secretary Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Gerard Mosquera, Quezon Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption Party-List Rep. Cinchona Cruz-Gonzales and lawyer Joe-Santos Bisquera.

On the second day, the other eight bets will take their turn: CA Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr., Associate Justice Stephen Cruz, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, Associate Justice Alex Quiroz, Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, former Commission on Audit Chairman Maria Gracia Pulido-Tan, DOJ Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras III and Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 90 Presiding Judge Reynaldo Daway.

After the interviews, the JBC is expected to come up with a short list by February. This means President Aquino may be able to name his sixth appointee in the High Tribunal before the period covered by the election ban on midnight appointments.

05 January 2015
by Joel R. San Juan