Philippine courts physically closed due to COVID-19

All Philippine courts will be physically closed and can only be reached by phone or online starting March 23, with judges and staff only going to court to act on matters they will consider urgent. 

In another major measure against the coronavirus threat, Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta advised litigants, lawyers, prosecutors, and the public to first call the courts through their hotline, email address, or Facebook account, if available, "wherein it shall be determined if the matter being raised is urgent."

"If urgent, only then will the justice or judge on-duty, together with the skeleton-staff, go to court to receive and act on the said urgent matter," Peralta said in an administrative circular released Friday. 

Calls and messages will be entertained from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Mondays to Fridays.

Matters involving liberty, like bail and the writ of habeas corpus, as well as scheduled promulgations of judgment of acquittals, are considered urgent, said Supreme Court spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka.

"Accordingly, all justices and judges on-duty, together with their skeleton staff, must stay at their respective residences, and shall only go to their courts once it has been determined that an urgent matter has to be acted upon. Otherwise, they need not go to their courts," Peralta said. 

Court personnel who were previously authorized to report to work, such as those involved in payments, salaries, and allowances, in the judiciary, will continue to come in to their respective courts "as the need arises."

"Law enforcement agents are strongly advised to let our justices, judges and their respective skeleton-staff pass through checkpoints as they all likewise have a constitutional mandate to perform," the chief justice said. 

In earlier circulars, Peralta suspended night courts and all court hearings except for urgent matters, like bail and acquittals. With the issuance of the newest circular, all provisions in prior instructions are considered repealed. 

Peralta said he ordered the closing down of courts due to the continued increase of COVID-19 infections and the enforcement of a state of calamity over the country and quarantines in several areas, as well as to "further limit the movement and travel of justices, judges and their skeleton-staff" in compliance with the government's appeal for the public to stay home. 

The chief justice revealed Friday that he tested negative for COVID-19. He traveled to the Netherlands, where more than 2,000 cases of infections have been recorded, on official business early March and showed symptoms after he returned, the Supreme Court's Public Information Office said. 

The Philippines has recorded 230 COVID-19 cases as of Friday afternoon. Of this number, 18 patients have died and eight have recovered.  -NB/RSJ, GMA News