In line with its Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations (SPJI) from 2022 to 2027, the Supreme Court is initiating “High-Performance Courts” by creating key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metrics, like those used in the private sector to measure the HPCs’ efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of speedy, quality justice. WELL-AWARE OF THE PERENNIAL…
In my column on March 24, I wrote that the pivotal issue in the case against former president Rodrigo R. Duterte in the International Criminal Court in The Hague is whether the ICC has acquired jurisdiction, given that (1) under the ICC Statute, the Office of the Prosecutor (OP) has two years from the Philippines’…
Voting 18-5, the Impeachment Court (IC), in an unusual and unprecedented action, remanded or returned to the House of Representatives (HOR) the Articles of Impeachment (AI) seeking the removal from office and the disqualification to hold public office in the future of the Vice President. At the same time, the IC issued a “Writ of…
Normally, Supreme Court justices are looked upon as a revered set of gruff, unsmiling, cold, and unreachable demigods loftily perched on Mount Olympus. The rare time they are seen in public is during oral arguments when they don their black robes, listen to, and interrogate even the most seasoned lawyers with piercing questions, subjecting them…
In People v. Alcantara taken up last Monday in this space, the government elevated the acquittal by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Mandaluyong City of former senator, former secretary of justice, and now representative-elect Leila de Lima to the Court of Appeals (CA). IN CONTRAST, in People v. XXX262846 (Feb. 18, 2025, per J…