The Supreme Court launched on Thursday, Jan. 26, the Digitized Benchbook for Philippine Trial Courts at the Session Hall of the Supreme Court of the Philippines in Manila.
The benchbook contains information on laws, rules, jurisprudence, and topics concerning the courts which will aid the members of the bench in their research when crafting their rulings and in carrying out their tasks.
An initiative of the SC’s judicial education and training arm, the Philippine Judicial Academy (PhilJA), the digitization of the Benchbook for Philippine Trial Courts is part of the Supreme Court’s Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations 2022-2027 (SPJI), under its second projected outcome of innovation.
SC chief justice Alexander G. Gesmundo, in his keynote message, stressed the need “to have all the resource materials at our fingertips” to aid the members of the Bench in writing continuously and to not lose their momentum.
“This digitized Benchbook for Philippine Trial Courts is intended to contain the updated pertinent laws, treaties, rules, regulations, and jurisprudence, and the latest issuances of the Supreme Court, each of them searchable, downloadable, user-friendly and ready for use,” said Gesmundo.
“Surely, there is no denying that keeping all these necessary information in one sourcebook for our trial courts will be a tremendous boost to our efforts in expediting court decisions and unclogging court dockets. This goal reflects the Court’s unwavering commitment to give responsive and real-time justice to our people,” he said.
The chief justice stressed that digitization allows for quicker and more efficient updates to ensure that the information accessed is current and accurate, as well as allows for greater collaboration and information sharing.
Present during the launch were executive secretary and retired chief justice Lucas P. Bersamin, senior associate justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, associate justice Amy C. Lazaro-Javier, associate justice Jhosep Y. Lopez, associate justice Antonio T. Kho, Jr., and associate justice Maria Filomena D. Singh.
