Raffle of newly-filed cases in ECQ areas resumes through videoconferencing

The raffle of newly-filed cases in courts located in areas under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) will resume through videoconferencing after being suspended last month, the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) said Friday.

In a circular, Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said all courts in ECQ areas shall resume the raffle of newly-filed cases, including "unraffled" cases. The judge-on-duty arrangement that was set up when raffling was suspended is now discontinued.

READ: OCA Circular No. 94-2020 addressed all concerned litigants, judges and court personnel of the first and second level courts, and members of the Bar on the resumption of raffle of cases through videoconferencing pic.twitter.com/quQTLA2z6m

— Supreme Court Public Information Office (PIO) (@SCPh_PIO) May 8, 2020

"All urgent matters that have to be acted upon on any given day shall be referred to the Executive Judge for appropriate action, or in the absence of the Executive Judge, to the Vice Executive Judge," the circular states.

Marquez said the suspension of raffle, or the process of assigning cases to judges, resulted in the accumulation of unraffled cases that if assigned and acted upon "may result in the expeditious termination of cases and consequent release of persons deprived of liberty (PDL)."

The raffle should follow the procedure laid down by the Supreme Court (SC) en banc in 2004, this time through an online platform that all courts nationwide have been equipped with, the circular states.

Private lawyers and the general public are "excluded" from the raffle during the public health emergency period.

After the raffle, case records should immediately be distributed to the court branches where the cases were raffled.

Meanwhile, the usual electronic raffle of cases in eCourt stations should proceed regularly regardless of whether the station is under ECQ or general community quarantine (GCQ). In case electronic raffle does not function in eCourts, they are to follow the guidelines for manual raffle through videoconferencing.

The raffle of newly-filed cases was suspended last April 3. In its place, courts were told to schedule the rotation of judges who will be on duty to act on urgent matters that will be brought before them.

The SC has made a number of adjustments in court procedures, such as allowing the electronic filing of cases, posting of bail, and transmission of release orders, in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Courts are still physically closed in ECQ areas.

Courts opened this week in places under GCQ. They are operating with a skeleton workforce that will act only on urgent matters. Night courts and Saturday courts will be suspended until May 15. --KBK, GMA News