PH courts have almost 1M unresolved cases

The number of unresolved cases from the Supreme Court down to the lower courts has reached nearly one million.

The number of pending cases was disclosed by Senate finance committee chairperson Grace Poe as she defended the proposed 2025 budget of the Judiciary on the Senate plenary on Monday.

It was Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada who inquired about the number of cases that remain pending from the lower courts up to the highest tribunal.

Responding to Estrada's query, Poe provided the figures, most of which are rounded off:

• Supreme Court: 14,756
• Court of Appeals: 26,000
• Court of Tax Appeals: 1,500
• Regional Trial Courts: 362,000
• Shari'a Courts: 298,000
• Family Courts: 64,000
• Metropolitan Trial Courts: 40,000
• Municipal Trial Courts in cities: 69,000
• Municipal Trial Courts: 28,000
• Municipal Circuit Trial Courts: 29,000
• Shari'a Circuit Trial Courts: 1,368

The sum of the figures that Poe mentioned is at 933,624.

With the SC memorandum circular ordering the lower courts to resolve all cases within 90 days, Poe said judges and justices who do not comply with the period provided will be charged with administrative cases.

"There are about 250 cases pending involving judges... There is a latest decision involving an RTC judge in Antipolo," Poe said.

Prior to this, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III noted that the disposition of cases, along with allegations of corruption, remain to be the two primary issues raised against the Judiciary.

In lamenting the delays in the resolution of cases, Pimentel cited a case which remains pending for 10 years.

This, he said, should be addressed by the Judiciary even with the use of computers.

While raising the idea, Pimentel warned against relying on artificial intelligence, which is currently being tapped by the courts to expedite the resolution of cases.

"I don't want anybody to be convicted by AI," Pimentel joked and clarified that the courts have "no plans of using AI when it comes to adjudicating cases."

This was confirmed by Poe, who said that AI can only "supplement" and can never replace human judgment and talent.

During the Senate finance committee's hearing on the Judiciary's budget last September, Court Administrator Raul Villanueva said the SC is eyeing to use AI as a tool in drafting decisions.

"AI, insofar as providing us data for policy and decision making with respect to coming out with draft decisions, AI can also be utilized also with respect to that," Villanueva said.

Aside from legal research, Villanueva said that AI is also being considered in monitoring the progress of cases, voice-to-text transcription, and translation of different languages to English.

"The SC would like to make sure that our judges and of course eventually our justices would be able to monitor the progress of their cases so that aging cases can be given priority as well," he said.

In October, Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo has said that while AI may be used to increase efficiency, it should never replace human elements.

Earlier in the day, the SC said it will draft a framework that will outline guidelines for the use of AI in court operations and management. — BAP, GMA Integrated News