Gov’t launches justice information system at Manila Hotel today

A National Justice Information System (NJIS) that will link into one network all data of prisoners and cases pending before the courts and the prosecutors’ offices is set to be launched on January 10, starting at 3 p.m., at the Manila Hotel.

Involved in the NJIS are

the Supreme Court, Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Information and Communications Technology, and the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB).

Agencies under the executive departments are the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).

Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta, DOJ Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra, DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Ano, DITC Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II, and DDB Chairman Catalino S. Cuy are set to sign the memorandum of agreements on the NJIS.

DOJ Undersecretary Markk Perete said “the NJIS is essentially an information of data portal or network where a lot of different systems relating to prisoners, cases being handled by the judiciary, to research materials on criminal and other prosecutions, among others, will be housed.”

Perete also said the NJIS will be an online system where data would be encoded and then uploaded.

Citing an example, he said that “the BJMP under the DILG will digitize its data on prisoners, including the length of stay in jails and sentence imposed by the courts, and upload them into a system that would be shared by everyone involved in the NJIS.“

He said the NJIS would be immediately operational. To be incorporated into the software component are the amended implementing rules and regulations on the prisoners’ good conduct time allowance (GCTA).

At the height of the controversy over the implementation of GCTA last year, it was discovered that prisoners’ records in the BJMP and the BuCor do not match.

The mismatch caused the problems in the determination of a prisoner’s stay in jail, Perete said.

“Before, the BuCor and the BJMP had different data on the actual number of days a prisoner was incarcerated. Remember also during the GCTA issue, one of the narratives that came up had to do with certain BuCor officials somehow being able to manage or mismanage the data relating to the length of stay of a prisoner prior to the conviction because that data is with the BJMP,” he said.

“If the Single Carpeta System under the NJIS was already in place at that time, no one could tamper with the numbers because from the very start when the BJMP already attests, through its records, of a prisoner’s number of days credited preventive imprisonment that would be recognized by the BuCor and that will be credited to that prisoner in the computation of his entire length of stay,” he added.

Citing a scenario in the issuance of a lookout bulletin or a hold departure order, Perete said the NJIS will ensure faster coordination between and among agencies to ensure that fugitives will not be able to leave the country.

“For example, a certain individual is facing a complaint before a prosecutor's office then immediately the legal staff would be able to see that this person is a respondent in a case. Therefore, we should already issue a lookout bulletin against him to be implemented by the BI, so that you can monitor the whereabouts of this particular person,” he said.

Now that the courts will be part of the NJIS, “warrants issued by the courts would be part of the information within the NJIS system and that will be shared to all the agencies including the BI,” he said.

On top of the benefits the NJIS would give the criminal justice system of the country, it could also be beneficial to lawyers, students, and lawyer organizations, he added.