Covered Courts
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone. Courts are no exception. When the Enhanced Community Quarantine was implemented, the Supreme Court suspended all hearings in the first-level, second-level and collegiate courts beginning March 13, 2020. It has also temporarily suspended/restricted personal follow up of all transactions throughout the various offices of the court and directed the public to course matters through its hotline numbers and emails. The court piloted initially the raffling of cases through video conferencing and, later, hearings through videoconferencing was also pilot-tested and was later expanded to courts in other areas.
As judges and lawyers tried their best to adapt to what has been expected to be the new normal for the judiciary, the IATF placed majority of the provinces under General Community Quarantine even if the experts from the University of the Philippines claim that we have not flattened the curve yet. As a result, community quarantine protocols have been relaxed including the protocols previously set by the Supreme Court which include the suspension of in-court hearings.
Under Administrative Circular No. 41-2020, the hearings of cases, regardless of the stage of the trial, shall all be in-court, except in cases involving Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) who shall continue to appear remotely from the detention facility, and in cases with extraordinary circumstances as may be determined by the justices and judges, which shall be heard through videoconferencing.
The recent circular brings back the old face-to-face proceeding as the standard mode of hearing cases while making hearings through videoconferencing available only under extraordinary circumstances. The continued use of videoconferencing in hearings for pilot testing purposes could have been an opportunity for the courts to explore ways of modernizing the judiciary, and perhaps, usher in some changes in the Rules of Court that are attuned to the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe). However, the Supreme Court still clings on to the traditional ways of doing things and, as the circular suggests, frowns upon the use of modern technology in the trial of cases.
In all these in-court hearings, the Supreme Court mandates that the health hygiene protocols and other public medical standards, such as wearing of face masks and face shields, subjecting everyone to a no-contact thermal scanning, and observance of social distancing, shall be strictly observed. As what we have seen in most establishments now, plastic shields that separate employees from their customers or clients are being installed to protect viral transmission.
Our courtrooms are not designed for the new normal. It has no ventilating system that prevents the spread of the virus. Courts have to rely on its available but limited resources to protect the judges, court employees, lawyers, and litigants. As of now, the only protection available is to have literally covered courts.