Duterte signs Judges-at-Large Act of 2019
President Duterte has signed the Judges-at-Large Act of 2019 aimed at easing the overload of cases in trial courts by creating 150 positions for judges-at-large nationwide.
Duterte signed Republic Act (RA) No. 11459 on August 30. It was passed by the Senate as Senate Bill No. 2065 and adopted by the House of Representative as House Bill No. 7309.
The new law creates 100 Regional Trial Judges-at-Large positions and 50 Municipal Trial Judges-at-Large positions nationwide to be assigned by the Supreme Court. The Regional Trial Judges-at-Large shall be assigned as acting or assisting judges to any Regional Trial Court while
Municipal Trial Judges-at-Large shall be assigned to any first-level court in the country as public interest may require.
They are entitled to salaries, privileges, allowances, emoluments, benefits, rank and title of a Regional or Municipal Trial Judge.
The Supreme Court shall determine the length of the temporary assignment provided that the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) shall recommend to the President the appointees to the posts. After the period of temporary assignment, the JBC shall recommend to the President the permanent sala to which the Judge-at-Large shall be appointed.
Qualifications
Under the new law, only naturalborn citizens of the Philippines, at least 35 years of age who practiced law in the country for 10 years shall be appointed as Regional Trial Judge or Judge-atLarge.
Meanwhile, the post of Metropolitan Trial Court, Municipal Trial Court, Municipal Circuit Trial Court Judgesat-Large requires candidates to be natural-born citizen of the Philippines, at least 30 years of age, and practiced law in the Philippines for five years.
Earlier, Senate Bill 2065 author and sponsor Richard Gordon pointed out that with about 160,000 cases pending in 1,200 first-level courts (city and municipal courts) and 640,000 in 1,100 second-level courts or the regional trial courts as of 2017, the clogged dockets of the courts cause great delay in the disposition of cases.
"Justice delayed is justice denied. Article III, Section 16 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution specifically states that 'all persons shall have the right to a speedy disposition of their cases before all judicial, quasi-judicial or administrative bodies," he said.
Gordon also cited data from the Supreme Court's Court Management Office which showed that as of December 31, 2018, there are 528 vacancies in first and second level courts.
"We are aware that there are courts that have overloaded salas or dockets. The proposal here, therefore, is to assign judges-at-large to support or to assist practically in passing these cases that are loading the docket so that justice could be dispensed more swiftly. They could also be assigned to temporarily fill up the vacancies until a permanent judge has been appointed," he added.