SC intensifies efforts to eradicate admin delays

The Supreme Court is pushing hard to eliminate the administrative delays and inefficiencies that have caused worry and concern for trial judges in the country.

SC Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo emphasized the significance of this as the court initiated the second phase of the Office of Regional Court Manager (ORCM) pilot implementation.

“We hope to eradicate the administrative delays and inefficiencies that add to the worries and concerns of our trial court judges, who as it stands, are already saddled with adjudicative work,” Gesmundo said.

He stated that the OCRM's establishment, part of the court's latest judicial reform initiative within the Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations 2022-2027 (SPJI), was discussed during the second phase of the caravan on the ORCM's Pilot Implementation, conducted at Angeles University Foundation in Angeles City, Pampanga on 12 April 2024.

Under the program, first- and second-level court judges will be rid of administrative worries and concerns; and instead, can primarily focus on deciding cases, thus improving court processes and the delivery of justice.

It will decentralize and improve the delivery of administrative services to first- and second-level courts by establishing regional offices across judicial regions which will be empowered to directly resolve many of the administrative concerns by the judges.

Through the ORCM, the OCA will devolve some of its key functions to the regional court managers, who will be directly communicating with the court branches within its region, and vice-versa.

The ORCM will be given the authority to sign off on administrative and fiscal matters, and to deliver multiple services directly to the courts. With the ORCM focusing on the administrative requirements of the trial courts in the region, the OCA will be able to devote more of its time and resources in a macro-level setting, and the trial courts can focus on their adjudicative functions.

Chief Justice Gesmundo stressed that the decentralization of administrative services in the trial courts is aligned with the SPJI, the court’s blueprint of action for judicial reform, which aims to achieve efficiency, innovation, and judicial access.

“Behind the creation of the SPJI is our honest belief that there can be no effective justice unless it is responsive and swiftly delivered. Justice delayed is justice denied as we would often hear. So, in line with this, we undertook a review of the judiciary’s organizational structure to determine the hurdles preventing the courts from achieving the SPJI’s primordial goals,” said Gesmundo.