[As Prepared]

[Greetings]

I am pleased to be here with you all today as we celebrate our shared milestones under USAID’s Judicial Strengthening to Improve Court Effectiveness activity, known as the “JUSTICE project.”

I represent the United States Agency for International Development, also known as USAID. USAID is the lead U.S. government agency for international development and disaster assistance. I bring you the greetings of the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, the Honorable Sung Kim.

I congratulate the Supreme Court and the rest of the Philippine judiciary for your indefatigable efforts to advance judicial reform. Seeing the highest levels of the judiciary prioritize reform is exciting, as it is a vital component of the country's social and economic development.

According to the Philippine Development Plan, strengthening the rule of law is critical to the Philippines’s development. We also find much encouragement in the commitment of the Philippines to undertake reforms in the other justice system sectors to ensure the swift and fair administration of justice.

From an economic growth standpoint, an effective justice system – as a foundation for enforcing contracts and other rights – will buttress the predictability and trustworthiness of the economic environment and in turn boost business confidence and activity.

The United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, recognizes rule of law as one of the key elements of the country’s pursuit of inclusive and resilient economic growth. In light of this, USAID and the Supreme Court of the Philippines launched the JUSTICE project in 2012 to improve judicial efficiency and integrity.

To modernize court procedures, the JUSTICE project supported the Supreme Court in introducing an automated case management system, or eCourt. As of today, the e-Court case management system has been installed in more than 300 trial courts throughout the country, providing judges and court staff with information on the progress of over 200,000 pending cases and the capability to conduct automated hearings.

Additionally, our collaboration in this project has trained more than 3,000 judges, court personnel, prosecutors, public defenders and mediators working in almost regional trial courts, equipping these personnel to handle cases more transparently and efficiently.

USAID supported the Supreme Court in the development of the Rules on the Continuous Trial of Criminal Cases, Practice Guidelines, and Small Claims Court procedures — revolutionizing the way trial courts manage their cases. Coupled with these initiatives was Hustisyeah, our decongestion program that eliminated tens of thousands of dormant cases, thereby significantly reducing the caseload of judges.

Six years after the implementation of the JUSTICE project, delays in court processes and procedures have been substantially reduced. Automatic assignment of cases has replaced the manual process which formerly took days to organize. Semi-automatic generation of court orders has now enabled judges to issue court orders literally within minutes as opposed to months.

I am pleased to hear that since the start of continuous trial implementation in September 2017 there have been several early successes. An assessment conducted by the Supreme Court demonstrated very encouraging accomplishments. Court data indicates that 48 percent of cases filed complied with the 180-day period for trial provided by law and the Rules of Court. This compares with just 2 percent prior to the effectivity of the continuous trial guidelines. Cases are also being decided more swiftly, with 69 percent of judgments promulgated within the 90-day period required under the Constitution, compared to only 38 percent in previous cases.

To strengthen contract enforcement, USAID worked with partners to enhance alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Since 2015, trained mediators have gained the necessary skills to resolve more than 90 percent of the total disputes referred to the National Center for Mediation, and that trend has been sustained to date. The Office of the Government Corporate Counsel’s use of USAID-trained in-house arbitrators has yielded government savings of up to 50 million pesos over what it would have spent on outside retainers’ fees.

USAID supported the Philippine Judicial Academy to build the capacity of Special Commercial Courts contributed to the Philippines maintaining its status as having strong Intellectual Property Rights protection and enforcement based on the latest edition of the Special 301 Report released by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

To support judicial integrity and accountability, USAID worked with the Office of the Court Administrator to install public kiosks in all of the eCourt sites, providing litigants with information about their cases. More importantly, the kiosks gave concerned individuals with access to real time information about their cases.

USAID is pleased that the JUSTICE project has helped the Philippines judicial system to plant the seeds for reform. We are hopeful that Filipinos will continue to reap the benefits of the judiciary’s determined efforts to improve the administration of justice and the rule of law in this country, so that all Filipinos can access justice with confidence. We at USAID are honored to be part of this.

Once again, I congratulate the Supreme Court leadership for its commitment and dedication to improving efficiency and transparency in the justice system in the Philippines.

Maraming salamat po!