Chief Justice Peralta: More than 120,000 inmates released since March
MANILA, Philippines — Amid the threat of the pandemic in overcrowded prisons, more than 120,000 inmates were allowed provisional liberty since the lockdown in March last year, Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta said Friday.
The head of the Judiciary said this in his acceptance speech of the Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa degree from the Tarlac State University on Friday morning.
Peralta said that from March 17, 2020 to Feb. 11, 2021, the courts have released 122,178 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).
Peralta said the releases were done through bail or on recognizance — defined as Republic Act 10389 as “mode of securing the release of any person in custody or detention for the commission of an offense who is unable to post bail due to abject poverty.”
Poor conditions and overcrowding have plagued Philippine jail and prisons long before the coronavirus pandemic. But the outbreak of the highly-transmissible disease in densely populated areas with lack of proper hygiene facilities — such as detention cells and prisons — pushed the Department of Justice and SC to craft guidelines to decongest them.
The SC has also been releasing circulars to help decongest jails, such as allowing electronic filing of charge sheets and transmission of release orders, reiteration of guidelines on release of qualified PDLs through self-recognizance and provisional dismissal, pilot testing of videoconference of urgent trials and issuing new guidelines on the reduced bail and recognizance as modes for releasing of indigent PDLs.
The Department of Justice, for its part, relaxed application for parole and executive clemency to also decongest penal facilities.
Pandemic policies
The chief justice, in his acceptance speech, recalled that being at the helm of the Judiciary during a pandemic “is no mean feat.”
“There are no guidelines or rules set in place for such an unfamiliar eventuality. All of us are in an unchartered territory still,” Peralta added.
But the chief justice said that even with the pandemic, it was clear that courts should be open, prompting them to craft policies to ensure access without sacrificing the health of Judiciary employees.
“These included the adoption of a skeleton-staffing scheme in courts, designation of judges on duty, extension of court deadlines, physical closure of courthouses and electronic submission of pleadings, adoption of evideoconference,” Peralta added.
Peralta also said that courts have conducted up to 192,444 video conferencing hearings, with the success rate of 88%, from May 4, 2020 to Feb. 5, 2021.
Peralta will step down from his post on March 27, a year ahead of him reaching the mandatory age of retirement of 70.
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