Jamaine Punzalan

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Job Manahan

ABS-CBN News

MANILA – The judiciary on Tuesday said it was seeking to remove most administrative workload for judges so they could focus on resolving cases. Senator Win Gatchalian noted that cases less than 3 years old comprise around 71 percent of the total pending cases in the country as of end-2024.Cases that are pending between 3 and 6 years, meanwhile, comprise 13 percent. Cases that are pending for 6 years or more stood at 16 percent of the total cases for resolution.“What’s noteworthy is the average caseload for judge. RTC (Regional Trial Court) is at 372; family courts are about 565, while MTC is about 369. Obviously, there [are] only 365 days a year so it is impossible for a judge to hear almost every day to dispense all those cases,” Gatchalian said.Gatchalian noted that while the judiciary proposed over P105 billion budget for next year, only P64 billion was allocated under the National Expenditure Program (NEP).Court Administrator Theresa Dolores C. Gomez-Estoesta said that because of the cut under the NEP, their budget for digitalization and complement staff would be directly affected.“The reason why it is really important that as of now, it is part of SPJI (Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations) is to devolve the functions of the Court Administrator so our judges need only to concentrate on the adjudication of their functions,” Gomez-Estoesta said.“All they need to do is hear cases, resolve final issues and judge. They need not to focus on their administrative functions,” she added.At present, Gomez-Estoesta said some 2,800 judges in the Philippines also handle proposals for repairs, supplies, procurement, the applications for personnel leave, and disciplinary actions.“It should be the function of the court administrator but since there is only one centralized office, we now devolve it, we centralize it to 15 regional court managers which have already been appointed by the court,” she said.She said they needed more complement staff to help out in the administrative function of the courts.Asked by Gatchalian if they were allowed to use the 11,000 funded positions in the judiciary and re-channel it to the complement staff, she said she would refer to the Fiscal Autonomy Act.“It has to be earmarked for an authorized plantilla item. If it is for casual and contractual positions, it has to be earmarked for that,” she said.“If it is a matter of realigning it from one allotment class to another, I would like to refer to the fiscal autonomy act because our chief justice has the power to move, allotment class from another,” she added.During the budget deliberation, Gomez-Estoesta said cases in the family courts usually run for disposition around 2 years and 4 months.Cases in the regional trial courts – or second level courts – run from 4 months to over 2 years.“For the Court of Appeals, it is even less. For court processing time, special civil action at least from January to August 2025, they were able to dispose of a total of 8,172 cases in 1.43 years or 1 year and 5 months,” she said.“For civil cases, a total of 6,059 cases or shelf life of 2 years and 5 months. For criminal cases, a total disposed cases of 6,677 or a total of 1 year and 10 months,” she added.Sandiganbayan cases usually run for an average of 4 and a half years, she said, with the anti-graft court disposing of 426 cases in 2025.From January to June this year, 150 cases were already resolved, she noted, with an average time for disposal of 2.4 years.“For the CA it is even less, they may not have provided the percentage for en banc cases where it is a mode of review, it is usually one year. For the division, an average of 2 years,” she said.

The judiciary on Tuesday said it was seeking to remove most administrative workload for judges so they could focus on resolving cases.

The judiciary on Tuesday said it was seeking to remove most administrative workload for judges so they could focus on resolving cases.

Judiciary eyes less administrative work for judges to speed up disposition of cases

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Judiciary eyes less administrative work for judges to speed up disposition of cases

Job Manahan,

ABS-CBN News

Published Sep 23, 2025 02:26 PM PHT

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Judiciary

Sandiganbayan

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