VOLUME XVI ISSUE NO. 63 1 JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014 VOLUME XVI ISSUE NO. 63 ISSN 2244-5862 From the Chancellor’s Desk It was a hectic quarter for PHILJA with the usual delivery of over the country: Competency Enhancement Training for our various programs—the Orientation Seminar-Workshop Judges and Court Personnel Handling Cases Involving for Executive Judges (selected Executive Judges and Vice Children (Dumaguete City); seminar-workshops on Various Executive Judges of the Visayas) held in Cebu; the Career Laws and Rules Relating to Money-Laundering and other Enhancement Program for RTC Clerks of Court in Region VI Financial Crimes held for Judges of Regions XI and XII (Davao (Roxas City) and Region XI (Davao City); the 70th Orientation City) and Regions VIII and IX (Cebu City); seminars on the Seminar-Workshop for Newly Appointed Judges; the 28th Rules of Procedure on Financial Rehabilitation for Special Orientation Seminar-Workshop for Newly Appointed Clerks Commercial Court Judges and Pairing Court Judges in the of Court and the 4th Orientation Seminar-Workshop for NCJR and Regions IV and V (Pasay City), Regions I to III, and Newly Appointed Sheriffs and Process Servers (Batch 1), for other stakeholders (Baguio City); seminar-workshop on both held at the PHILJA Training Center (PTC) in Tagaytay Strengthening Judicial Integrity and Rule of Law for City. Other activities also held at the PTC were the Judicial Executive and Vice Executive Judges of Regions IX to XII Career Enhancement Program for selected RTC Judges of (Davao City). the National Capital Judicial Region and the Career After a long time since the last one, and pursuant to Development Program for Court Legal Researchers of the Chief Justice’s directive, a Curriculum Review for the Region VIII. Philippine Judicial Academy was held at the PTC which was The Focus Group Discussion on the Rules of Procedure immediately followed by a well-attended 4th Plenary for Environmental Cases and the Personal Security Training Assembly of the PHILJA Corps of Professors at the Court of for Judges, as well as the Refresher/Advanced Course for Appeals Auditorium in Manila. Court-Annexed Mediators for the Batangas, Laguna, and It was at this last forum that I shared the information Quezon Mediation Programs, also took place at the PTC. that I had been elected Member of the International “Glenda,” one of the most powerful typhoons to hit the Commission of Jurists for a five-year term. I will continue as Philippines this year, dealt the Metro area and Tagaytay Chancellor of PHILJA but will attend and give lectures on City a blow dreadful enough to damage some areas of the human rights and the rule of law in the Asian region to fulfill PTC and to cause both a power outage and water shortage. two weeks a year of service. Our commendable PTC staff and PHILJA training teams Notwithstanding its full calendar, PHILJA continued to proceeded with the scheduled activities notwithstanding assist in the Enhanced Justice on Wheels Program (EJOW) the discomfort in the typhoon’s aftermath. through the delivery of the component Information In August, we headed to Dumaguete, the lovely city by Dissemination through a Dialogue among Barangay Officials the sea, for this year’s Academic Excellence Lecture Series and Court Officials in the cities of Iloilo and Bacolod in in the Judiciary (AELSJ), in partnership with the Metrobank Western Visayas, in Digos, Davao del Sur, and in Kidapawan Foundation and in cooperation with the Silliman University City in the province of Cotabato. College of Law and its General Education Integrative We also extended a hand to the 16th Convention and Learning Lectures Program. Human Rights lawyer and Seminar of the 20,000 strong Philippine Association of Court University of the Philippines Professor Herminio Harry L. Employees (PACE) in Davao City, which was attended by Roque, Jr., featured speaker, addressed an audience of some 3,000 of its members, and likewise helped in the 16th judges, lawyers, and law students in a lecture on Legal Convention and Seminar of the Metropolitan and City Judges Nuances to the Philippine Ratification of the Rome Statute Association of the Philippines held in Quezon City. in the International Criminal Court held at the University’s world-class Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium. The Academy, thru the Philippine Mediation Center Office (PMCO), conducted a number of activities supporting In addition, quite a number of special focus seminar- workshops were carried out by PHILJA training teams all (Continued on page 6) 2 JULY - SEPTEMBER 2014 Contents Chancellor Azcuna Elected as ICJ Commissioner From the Chancellor’s Desk . 1 Judicial Views . 3 Trainings, Programs and Activities . 7 Judicial Moves . 20 Doctrinal Reminders . 21 Circulars OCA Cir. No. 87-2014 — Guidelines on the Release of Pensions for Judges/Pensioners and Survivorship Pensioners . 27 OCA Cir. No. 89-2014 — Small Claims Case Monitoring System (SC2MS) Survey . 27 OCA Cir. No. 90-2014 — A.M. No. 12-4-6-SC (Re: BIR Letter of Authority to Examine SC Books of Account and other Accounting Records). 28 OCA Cir. No. 99-2014 — Reduction of Initial/ Opening Deposit and Maintaining Balance of Regular Savings Account from P10,000 to P1,000 for the Fiduciary and Sheriff’s Trust Fund Accounts; Waiver of Certification Fee on Bank Balances; and Waiver of Fee on Requests for Snapshots and Re- Printing of Bank Statements . 28 OCA Cir. No. 104-2014 — Court of Appeals Decision dated June 25, 2014 in C.A. G.R. SP No. 131969 . 28 OCA Cir. No. 110-2014 — Bar Matter No. 2604 (Re: Clarification Relative to Sections 2 and 13, RULE III of the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice). 29 Cir. No. 112-2014 — Court Recognition of BJMP’s The Philippine Judicial Paralegal Program . 29 Academy (PHILJA) takes OCA Cir. No. 113-2014 — Inventory of Confiscated pride in its Chancellor, Property Bonds . 29 Justice Adolfo S. Azcuna, OCA Cir. No. 115-2014 — Uniform Period and for his election as a Procedure in the Payment of Fines in Commissioner to the International Commission of Jurists Administrative Matters . 30 (ICJ) [http://www.icj.org] based in Geneva, Switzerland. OCA Cir. No. 119-2014 — Conduct of Physical Inventory and Renewal of Acknowledgment Justice Azcuna’s election to the ICJ is a recognition of Receipt for Equipment (ARE) . 30 PHILJA’s work in judicial education particularly in promoting OCA Cir. No. 120-2014 — Piloting of a New System and strengthening the cause of human rights and the rule for Speedy Court Trial . 31 of law in the Philippines and worldwide. OCA Cir. No. 121-2014 — Clarification on the Collection of Postponement Fee in Consolidated The International Commission of Jurists, composed of Cases . 38 eminent judges and lawyers from around the world, OCA Cir. No. 122-2014 — A.M. No. 14-08-94-MeTC promotes and protects human rights through the rule of (Re: Proper Fees to be Collected in Election Contests law to develop and strengthen national and international Involving Elective Municipal and Barangay justice systems. It aims to ensure the progressive Officials) . 39 development and effective implementation of international OCA Cir. No. 125-2014 — A.M. No. 11-10-03-0 (Re: Letter Dated April 18, 2011 of Chief Public Attorney human rights and international humanitarian law; to secure Persida Rueda-Acosta . 39 the realization of civil, cultural, economic, political, and Orders social rights; to safeguard the separation of powers; and to guarantee the independence of the judiciary and the legal Office Order No. 10-2014 — Establishing the Standard Thickness of Case Rollos and Records . 41 profession. As a Commissioner, Justice Azcuna is expected Memorandum Order No. 19-2014 – Reorganizing to work actively towards the fulfilment of the objectives of the Committee on Computerization and Library . 41 the Commission and to assist in the implementation of its Memorandum Order No. 20-2014 — Creating the programmes, especially those related to his expertise — Committee on Family Courts and Juvenile Concerns . 42 human rights. Fourth Quarter Trainings, Programs and Activities . 44 Justice Azcuna, the first Filipino ICJ Commissioner, will serve for a five-year term until 2019. VOLUME XVI ISSUE NO. 63 3 A Thought Piece on the Philippine Judicial Academy Curriculum Review Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno Chief Justice of the Philippines In 1996, the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) was established by the Supreme Court and “charged with the formulation and implementation of a continuing program of judicial education for justices, judges, court personnel and lawyers” (Sec. 1, A.O. No. 35-96, March 12, 1996). Two years later,1 PHILJA was given its legislative charter through the passage of Republic Act No. 8557 (“An Act Establishing the Philippine Judicial Academy, Defining Its Powers and Functions, Appropriating Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes”). Pursuant to the State policy to ensure the existence of an efficient and credible Judiciary, PHILJA’s mandate is to “provide members of the Judiciary and prospective OFFICE OF THE CHIEF JUSTICE applicants with continuing good education and training” SUPREME COURT (Sec. 1, RA No. 8557) by serving as a “training school for MANILA Justices, Judges, court personnel, lawyers and aspirants to judicial posts” (Sec. 3, RA No. 8557). 12 August 2014 Under the last mentioned provision of RA No, 8557, Hon. ADOLF S. AZCUNA PHILJA “shall provide and implement a curriculum for Chancellor judicial education, and shall conduct seminars, workshops Philippine Judicial Academy and other training programs designed to upgrade (the) legal knowledge, moral fitness, probity, efficiency, and Dear Chancellor Azcuna: capability” of those it is mandated to train and educate.2 Allow me to express my gratitude to the Philippine Eighteen years after the passage of PHILJA’s charter, a Judicial Academy (PHILJA) for its initiative to conduct a curriculum review has become imperative.