SC backs wider access to Shari’ah courts for Muslims

The Supreme Court has expressed support for the passage of House Bill 5045 which seeks to expand access to  Shari’ah courts or courts for those who practice the Muslim faith.

Supreme Court Administrator Raul Villanueva was referring to House Bill 5045 which tasks the state-run National Commission for Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) to perform the following functions:

• assist the Philippine Statistics Authority in conducting census on the actual population of Muslim Filipinos in the country
• facilitate certain Shari'a Court Services to Muslim Filipinos
• act as a service provider for filing of certain documents in the Shari'a Courts and charge appropriate fees for such services, and
• pursue Public-Private Partnership Projects for the benefit of Muslim Filipinos.

Likewise, the bill mandates the NCMF’s Bureau of Legal Affairs to ensure that Muslim Filipinos who have no access to Shari'a Courts within their Region can file the appropriate documents with respect to the special jurisdiction of Shari'a Courts. The same bill provides that NCMF should provide equitable access to the Shari’a Courts for all Muslim Filipinos, and that the required number of personnel and legal officers for the effective implementation of this Act shall be determined by the NCMF.

“We support the bill as it provides assistance to the needs of our Muslim brothers and sisters, particularly in need for Shari’ah court in registration of birth, marriage or death certificate. Our Shari’ah courts, both Shari’ah District Court and Shari’ah Circuit Courts, are located in limited places, just in Regions 9 and 12,” Villanueva said during the public hearing on the measure conducted by the House Muslim affairs panel.

Specifically, Villanueva said these Shari’ah District Courts or the counterpart of the Regional Trial Courts are just located in Jolo (Sulu), Bongao in Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga city, Marawi city and Cotabato city, the seat of government of the Bangsamoro Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“May we also manifest that our Shari’ah Courts are not all fully functional because we have a problem in filling in vacancies. These five District Courts only have one judge handling them,” Villanueva said.

As for Shari’ah Circuit courts or the Municipal Trial Courts, Villanueva said that while there are 51 of them, only 36 are organized and are handled by 19 permanent judges, resulting in additional work.

Villanueva, however, expressed reservation on the Section 5 of the proposed House Bill 5045 which provides that the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the NCMF should pursue, in coordination with the Supreme Court, the creation of a digital platform that will allow paperless filing of routine documents such as marriage certificate, birth certificate, death certificate as well as the collection of appropriate court fees for this purpose.

“Our reservation is because of the [need to uphold the] privacy of the information on the parties and other documents,” Villanueva said.

Villanueva cited that the Supreme Court is already digitizing the court processes through the Philippine Judiciary 365 program which provides courts with respective accounts for court processes that could be done online.

“We have an available platform where the disclosure of the information is only for the use of the courts and the parties [in the case],” Villanueva added.

House Bill 5045 is authored by Representative Khalid Dimaporo of Lanao del Sur, the chair of the House Muslim affairs panel. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News