CHIEF Justice Alexander Gesmundo has assured that he and his fellow magistrates in the Supreme Court (SC) will be more visible to the public to prove that the moniker referring to them as “gods of Padre Faure” is not true.
CJ Gesmundo issued the statement on Wednesday’s Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum where he and Associate Justice Jose Midas Marquez, Jhosep Lopez and Filomena Singh appeared as guests.
The Chief Magistrate explained their recent series of media interviews and public appearances is in line with the Court’s desire to reach out to ordinary people and stakeholders in the judiciary as part of its five-year Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations (SPJI) 2002-2027.
The justices are currently doing rounds to inform the public of the reforms and programs that the Court would be implementing under the SPJI, which will serve as the institutional blueprint of the Judiciary’s plans and programs for the delivery of “responsive and real time justice” within five years.
“The other activity we’d like to focus on is what we call accessibility. The Court must be accessible to ordinary people and to lift the shroud of mystery on how the Supreme Court works, on how the judiciary performs its functions,” CJ Gesmundo said.
“For a long time…we are gods of Padre Faura. That is a misnomer. We are not gods, we are not infallible. But, like what was said, we have to descend from our perch to be able to reach out to the people,” the Chief Justice said.
Gesmundo noted that the justices have been going out and attending several gatherings in the provinces and entertaining media interviews in the past few days.
“Maybe, you have noticed the justices of the SC are going out of the gates of Padre Faura, traveling to some parts of the country to be able to communicate with all the stakeholders in the judicial system. We listen to judges, lawyers, and ordinary people because they ought to know what we are doing so we can address them properly,” he explained.
He said people should expect media appearances for the justices as they have to inform and answer questions from stakeholders and ordinary people on how the SPJI would be beneficial to them.
The SPJI, according to the Chief Justice, is anchored on four guiding principles—timely and fair justice, transparent and accountable justice, equal and inclusive justice, and technologically adaptive management—and aimed at three outcomes such as efficiency, innovation, and access.
Under the first outcome of efficiency, court systems—both adjudicative and administrative—will be streamlined based on the needs of stakeholders both inside and outside the Judiciary.
The SC would also undertake a Judiciary-wide organizational review and restructuring.
Under the second outcome of innovation, the SC will shift and run all adjudicative and administrative processes to an automated platform.
Under the third and final outcome of access, the SC will work towards bringing services faster, closer and more efficiently to the people.