Cebu City courts to reopen tomorrow

By: Delta Dyrecka Letigio - 3 years ago

Image: INQUIRER.net stock photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Regional Trial Courts (RTC) in Cebu City will reopen tomorrow, February 2, 2022, and with this, all judicial processes will be resuming at the Quimonda Building in the North Reclamation Area (NRA).

Executive Judge Marlon Moneva issued a memorandum announcing the resumption of court operations starting February 2, 2022, following more than a month of closure due to Typhoon Odette.

With this, courts must observe a 50 percent skeletal workforce with one-half of the workforce reporting on-site on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; and, the other half reporting on Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday, and so on and so forth.

Employees who are not scheduled to report to the office shall be under the work-from-home arrangement.

“Judges shall maximize videoconferencing hearings and refrain from requiring parties to appear in court, except on urgent matters and in other matters as the court may determine. In-court attendance shall be limited to lawyers, parties, and witnesses required to participate in-court,” said the memo.

Office hours shall be from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. On Saturday, courts and offices on duty shall maintain a skeleton workforce of only 30 percent.

Personal filing or service of all pleadings, motions and other court submissions shall not be allowed from February 2 to 15, 2022, while Cebu City is under Alert Level 3.

This is with an exception for criminal information manually filed by the City Prosecutor’s Office before the RTC Office of the Clerk of Court (OCC) because filing is unavailable in that office due to a lack of internet connection.

“Pleadings, motions, and other court submissions may be filed or served by registered mail, through accredited private couriers, or by email. The periods for filing and service of pleadings and another court submissions are no longer suspended since the same may be done electronically,” added Judge Moneva.

Here is a full copy of the memorandum from RTC in Cebu City:

/rcg