regional office 11 project page 3

I. TITLE                         :        "JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED"

II. LEAD AGENCY              :        COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

III. PARTNER AGENCIES       :      Judiciary (Courts), Department of Justice (DOJ), Civil Service Commission, PNP                                                                  Internal Affairs Service (IAS), Ombudsman-Mindanao, Ombudsman for the                                                              Military, and other tribunals

IV. BACKROUND/OVERVIEW:

        Mandated by the Constitution under Article XIII, Section 18, Paragraph 3, the Commission on Human Rights is mandated to "provide appropriate legal measures for the protection of human rights off all persons within the Philippines, as well as Filipinos residing abroad x x x." In line with this power and function, the Commission provides monitoring programs and services. Cases involving human rights violation investigated by the Commission and indorsed with the courts and other tribunals that did not attain finality were monitored pertaining to its latest status to track it. The objectives of which are to update its clientele, especially those who are detained and in prison, as to the progress of their cases and to have a data bank for purposes of issuing clearance to PNP and AFP members who would go schooling and/or seek promotion.

Previously, monitoring of cases in CHR XI was entrusted to one investigator and later distributed to resolving lawyers and Attorney III's. The outcome of thereof was not impressive. Actions to written request were minimal, sometimes there were courts and tribunals merely ignored the requests. Feedback have it that the system was cumbersome to accomplish. On several occasions, Investigators were send on travel for monitoring purposes, nonetheless, the scheme was very costly that's why it was stopped.

For the purpose of facilitating the effective monitoring of cases, then Information Officer II Miguel A. Peñaloza and Investigator I Francis Jude Alcomendras conceptualized a user friendly monitoring forms for the courts, administrative and quasi-judicial. The procedures and the forms are hereunder shown.

V. THE MONITORING SYSTEM

Mechanics/Procedure

              1. There should be a permanent personnel or a team that will be assigned to periodically monitor the status                    of cases.

            2.  The personnel or team will fill up in duplicate the appropriate MONITORING FORMS for specific agencies                     ( please refer to Forms A , B , and C herein appended).

              3. A COVER LETTER and a TRACER LETTER will be filled up for mailing ( please refer to Forms I or II to                   which the monitoring forms will be attached ).

B. The Forms

1. THE MONITORING FORMS (Forms A, B and C )

The variations of the entries thereof are due to the different procedures and stage the courts and other tribunals pursued in the disposition of their cases. A blank is provided before every stage for the accomplishing agency to check in order to reflect the present status of the case. A blank is also provided for the remarks of the said status.

One MONITORING FORM should be accomplished for every case. If two or more cases are pending before the same court or tribunal, the forms should be mailed with the COVER LETTER together with a pre-stamped self-addressed envelope to facilitate easy retrieval. If there is only one case, the form pre-typed with the address of the Commission as the addressee and pre-stamped should be mailed together with the COVER LETTER.

The phrase; "if the status of the case has already reached either stages D, E, F etc. . . . , we would appreciate it very much if your good office can furnish us a copy of the resolutions/decision thereof" is for PROOF purposes; that if the addressee will not furnish the Regional Office of the documents requested, the accomplished monitoring forms may serve as a confirmation that indeed the monitoring was made.

2. THE COVERING LETTERS (Forms I and II)

          FORM I, COVER LETTER , should be addressed properly reflective of the monitoring forms attached to it. It should be dispatched as scheduled thru registered mail.

         FORM II, TRACER LETTER , should be mailed after observing the period set forth under R.A. 6713. The letter should be strongly worded intended to remind and/or to put more pressure to the addressee to act on the Commissions request as mandate by law.

        The same will be resorted to twenty (20) days after the receipt of the registry return card of the COVER LETTER. The letter may be sent thru ordinary mail.

C. Schedule and Frequency of Monitoring

The periodic monitoring of cases may be undertaken twice a year and by Province or City. This mode of schedule and frequency, coupled with the use of the forms abovementioned, is advantageous to the Commission's, the Court's and the other Tribunal's personnel who will be involved and would ultimately assume and maintain the task of accomplishing the paperwork this activity would entail. Also, it would be a much better way of monitoring the Commission's cases with the least burden to be exerted by the personnel concerned of the agency to which the request is to be addressed.

VI. RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH

Monitoring of cases is a realization of the Rights-Based Approach to Development (RBAD). Under this program, the client is the reason why this office pursued this program because there are clients who have less knowledge about litigation. The Commission takes the initiative to help the client so that the latter could be fully assisted relative to his case.
In the monitoring of cases, the Commission is critical that the rights listed below are afforded to its clients.

RIGHTS	INTERNATIONAL STANDARD	NATIONAL LAW
Right to Information	ICCPR Art. 9, 14	Sec. 14, Art. III, Philippine Constitution
Right to Due Process of Law	UDHR Art. 11 ICCPR 9, 14, 15	Sec. 14, Art. III, Philippine Constitution
Right to speedy disposition of cases before all judicial, quasi-judicial and administrative bodies	UDHR Art. 10, 8 ICCPR 9, 14	Sec. 16, Art. III, Philippine Constitution
Right to free and equal access before the courts and quasi-judicial bodies	UDHR Art. 7 ICCPR 9, 14	Sec. 11, Art. III, Philippine Constitution
Right to adequate legal assistance	ICCPR 9, 14	Sec. 11, Art. III, Philippine Constitution

The promotion and protection of these rights is the focus of this program. Learning from experience, poor and disadvantaged people always go to jail not because they are guilty, but due to lack of logistic to be utilized in going through with the rigors of litigation. Because of this, the Commission committed to extend the best possible legal assistance to its client not only in a form of legal advise, but also in the making of follow-ups of the cases it took cognizance.

VII. BEST PRACTICE

When this was tested and continued until this time, the system yielded good results. Using the system will facilitate a more efficient monitoring of cases.

The creation of the Protection and Monitoring Division is a remarkable event for this program. Previously, monitoring of cases was off and on due to multiple tasks it entails when assigned to a lawyer or investigator. The establishment of this division will enhance the monitoring work of this office. Making it a section in this division or assigning the program to a person or team will most likely result to an updated status on the cases monitored by the Commission and a data bank for easy reference.

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS XI
Trinity II Bldg., Quimpo Blvd.
Ecoland, Davao City

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