THE Supreme Court (SC) is now set to fully implement the electronic subpoena system or eSubpoena in trial courts nationwide, a system that is expected to speed up court proceedings involving police officers.
The SC, through Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, issued Circular 224-2017 to all first, and second-level courts that have undergone training for the project to start implementing the eSubpoena system.
The circular, which was issued on December 21, also tasked lower courts with connectivity issues to use contingency measures and implement the program immediately.
“Pending full connectivity of all the courts nationwide, those courts, which have no signal or are experiencing intermittent Internet signals in their stations are directed to use available Internet facilities in their respective areas and utilize the monthly extraordinary and miscellaneous expense allowance provided to the judges in sending the eSubpoena,” the administrative order read.
Marquez, who supervises all regional trial courts, metropolitan trial courts, municipal trial courts and other local courts in the country, also reminded the courts and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to strictly accomplish the feedback section in the system.
He lamented that over 52,000 subjects issued with eSubpoena did not have feedback, disabling the effective monitoring of attendance of summoned police officers in court hearings.
Marquez, likewise, tapped the SC’s Management Information System Office to handle courts that still do not have accounts or need to restart their password for the modernization.
The eSubpoena was approved by the SC in April 2014 in partnership with the PNP as part of the judiciary-modernization program.
It was intended to ensure the attendance of police officers when called to testify in criminal cases.
The program is aimed to address the absences of police officers in hearings, which had previously led to the thrashing of thousands of cases—mostly drug cases—and the prolonged detention of suspects that further contribute to jail congestion.
Under this system, court personnel enter the details of the subpoena in the PNP’s database using an eSubpoena form.
Once sent, the PNP unit’s court process officer acknowledges the receipt and will inform the police officer being summoned.
Within three days from the receipt of the eSubpoena, the PNP is mandated to inform the court of the summoned officer’s availability for the hearing.
Police officers who will fail to appear in a hearing despite receiving the summon through the eSubpoena system may face administrative and criminal actions.