1 in 3 courts judge-less; case backlog hits .7 M
Strengthen dispute mediation and barangay-level arbitration Recto

Government should strengthen the proven conflict mediation process at the barangay level and other forms of alternative dispute resolution as the countrys undermanned courts continue to be clogged with cases, Sen. Ralph Recto said today.

Recto said government can create a new item in the national budget allocation for local government units whose aim is to increase the capability of Lupong Tagapamayapa.

The latter is a body composed of barangay officials where minor cases involving residents are patched up through mediation.

Community-level arbitration may be the key of reducing cases sent up to the courts already facing a shortage of judges, Recto said.

In the beginning of 2006, only 1,471 out of 2,152 judicial positions are vacant, or one in every three salas is without a judge, Recto said, citing Supreme Court documents.

Lower courts account for bulk of the vacancies: 139 in Regional Trial Courts; 21 in Metropolitan Trial Courts; 55 in Municipal Trial Courts in Cities; 134 in Municipal Trial Courts; 244 in Municipal Circuit Trial Courts; and 28 in Sharia courts.

As a result, one RTC judge handled 663 cases in 2005. The load of first level court judge such as those in MTCs is a staggering 947 cases, Recto said.

With fewer judges on the bench to try a flood of cases , it is no wonder that pending cases have piled up despite a high disposition rate of magistrates, Recto said.

At the end of 2005, there were 744,251 cases pending in lower courts . This despite the fact that courts disposed 340,360 cases that year. The annual turnover of cases is simply big, Recto said.

Appellate courts such as the Court of Appeals, Sandiganbayan and the Court of Tax Appeal also face the same problem. The CA had 22,521 cases pending as of Dec. 31, 2005 , and the Sandiganbayan and the CTA had 2,277 and 771 cases respectively.

To solve the lack of judges, Recto said judicial authorities should aggressively hire members of the bench, and address their concerns such as their security detail to entice more lawyers to judgeships.

While salaries of judges have doubled by virtue of Republic Act 9227, compensation appears not to be the key in luring lawyers to join courts

For faster disposition of cases IT-based solutions can be a big help, he said Computerization of courts such as the CAMIS project which provided for online statistical gathering of judicial cases should be expanded, he said.

According to Recto, another well-lauded project of the SC which has to be replicated is the Justice on Wheels Project which literally bring the courts to the people via buses that serve as a courtroom and as a place for mediation of parties involved.

Recto said the unclogging of cases would lead to the unclogging of jails. At present, Philippine prisons, jails and police precincts house an estimated 120,000 detainees, requiring billions of pesos for upkeep, Recto said.