The Supreme Court authorized 882 single-sala courts to conduct hearing through videoconferencing to curb further delays in the resolution of pending cases amid community quarantines.
Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez in his latest circular, acknowledged the delay in the resolution of pending civil and criminal cases that were not allowed to conduct online hearings.
Earlier in an Administrative Order 37-2020 issued last April 30, all courts in the National Capital Judicial Region and the major cities in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao were allowed to pilot-test the videoconferencing in hearing or settling urgent matters involving cases of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).
The OCA also expanded the videoconferencing hearing coverage, covering both criminal and civil cases. It also allowed more courts to join in the pilot-test of online hearings.
From May 4 to August 7, authorized courts allowed around 47,676 videoconferencing hearings with an 85 percent success rate.
OCA Circular 92-2020 reported all 1,025 single-sala courts had been provided with Philippine Judiciary 365 accounts, which would enable them to conduct online hearings.
However, only 153 single-sala courts were authorized to conduct video conferencing.
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Supreme Court approves online hearings
“Considering, however, that the entire country has been under different levels of quarantine for some five months now, court action on pending cases before courts [that] have not been authorized to conduct videoconferencing hearings has been delayed. Hence, there is a need to authorize more courts to conduct videoconferencing hearings,” the circular read.
The OCA also issued data showing that a total of 58,625 PDLs were ordered released by trial courts through the conduct of videoconferencing hearings from March 17 to August 14.
The inmates were granted temporary freedom via either bail, recognizance, or released after serving a minimum jail sentence. The National Capital Region (NCR) released the most number of prisoners numbering 12,726. Region 4, meanwhile, released 10,354; Region 3 (Central Luzon) 7,855; Region 7 (Central Visayas) with 6,970; and, Region 1 (Ilocos Region) released 4,483 prisoners.
Each remaining regions released prisoners ranging from more than 1,000 to more than 2,000 but not exceeding 3,000.
Videoconferencing would be utilized “while there is public health emergency unless extended by the Supreme Court thereafter,” Marquez earlier said.
Online hearings would be the “new normal during public health emergency” for the judiciary, he added.