Will the new Judicial Integrity Board root out corruption in PH courts? JIB’s success will depend on the qualities of its members. “It all depends on who are appointed, who will do the job,” says Antonio La Viña. BY STANLEY BUENAFE GAJETE May 5, 2021 | 11:00:00 AM
President Rodrigo Duterte has seemingly ended his revolving-door policy on appointments to the highest post in the judiciary with the selection of Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, who is expected to serve five years at the helm of the Supreme Court.
Gesmundo, who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2026, will have one of the longest stints in the post-Martial Law court, along with former chief magistrates Andres Narvasa (Dec. 8, 1991 – Nov. 30, 1998, 6 years and 357 days), Hilario Davide Jr. (Nov. 30, 1998 – Dec. 20, 2005, 7 years and 20 days), and Maria Lourdes Sereno (Aug. 25, 2012 – May 11, 20
V. THE OTHER BATTLE: BACKLOG Fix your house and put it in order to shield very brilliant justices of the Supreme Court from this problem. BY STANLEY BUENAFE GAJETE April 30, 2021 | 11:30:00 PM
There is another uphill battle the Supreme Court is fighting: its backlog of cases. If the high court has a caseload of nearly 15,000 cases and the en banc and its divisions are only able to dispose of 105 and 923 cases a year, respectively, based on the court’s own disclosures in 2016, how are they expected to attend to them all?
It’s the high court’s biggest administrative headache, and the pressure is growing on the justices to get a handle of it.