MANILA, Philippines – The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan launched on Tuesday, June 19, its modernization and transparency initiative that aims to make the court digital.

Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje Tang said the digitization will help them resolve cases faster, as they target a one-year maximum disposition.

At the Sandiganbayan, the rotation of justices in divisions is more frequent. Complicated cases like the Marcos wealth civil cases would involve physical transfer of voluminous records. Given this, even easy access and transfer of records can have a huge effect.

“We can access our own decisions, resolutions, that way we will be consistent in our decisions,” Tang said.

Currently, the Sandiganbayan uploads resolutions and decisions on its website within 24 hours of promulgation.

Under the modernization program, the Court aims to include in the website a calendar of hearings, and a case status feature which will also include links to past decisions, even Supreme Court decisions, that are relevant to the case.

The public will also be able to track the developments of the case.

But what would make the court process truly faster is if pleadings can be submitted electronically, and if courtesy copies can be sent electronically to all parties. It will cut the time waiting for parties to be served their copies.

Tang said this is not included in the court’s plans yet.

“Baka hindi pa muna, because ang ano ngayon, ang plan, is the decisions, resolutions, saka yung iba pang incidents (Maybe not for now, because our plan in the meantime is to upload the decisions, resolutions and other incidents),” Tang said.

An electronic court process is the dream idea of the  Enterprise Information Systems Plan (EISP), the pet project of ousted chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

The EISP piloted in more than 290 trial courts, but the project is hounded by controversies that arose from Sereno’s hiring of a P250,000-a-month consultant, Helen Macasaet.

The hiring is the subject of a pending administrative case at the Supreme Court.

The Sandiganbayan’s modernization program is funded by the Australian government, and not included in Sereno’s EISP.

“Kami mismo sa ano namin, sa Court namin [ang initiative] (We, in the Court, had the initiative),” Tang said.

The Sandiganbayan also aims to upload archives of decisions dating back to 1979.

“I have every faith that the component projects of this initiative, along with the Supreme Court’s revised guidelines for continuous trial of criminal cases, will aid in the expeditious adjudication of cases before the Sandiganbayan,” said Tang, who will serve the anti-graft court until 2024.

Sandiganbayan launches its modernization and transparency initiative. In the masterplan, court calendars are electronic and the public will be able to track the development and status of cases. @rapplerdotcom pic.twitter.com/17tB8gPafM

— Lian Buan (@lianbuan) June 19, 2018

– Rappler.com