Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo on Friday disclosed that there have been 1,994 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the judiciary with 33 deaths as of June 3, 2021.

Of the confirmed cases, there were 1,846 recoveries with 115 active cases, Gesmundo said during his first Meet the Press event.

The Supreme Court (SC) has rolled out COVID-19 health protocols to stop the spread of the coronavirus in courts.

The high court had previously ordered physical closure of courts while skeleton workforce have been enforced to act on urgent matters and queries.

Meanwhile, the SC has extended financial assistance to judges and court personnel of first and second level courts who contracted COVID-19 and required in-patient care or hospital confinement.

The amount of financial assistance varies from the extent of their illness: mild to moderate – P15,000; severe to critical – P30,000; and death (whether hospitalized or not) – P50,000.

“Considering that there are judges and court personnel of first and second level courts who contracted COVID-19 while in the performance of their functions, there is a need to help them to defray the hospitalization expenses incurred in treating COVID-19 infection,” OCA (Office of the Court Administrator) Circular No. 51-2021 read.

Justices fully vaccinated

All justices of the SC have already been fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, Gesmundo said.

“All members of the court have been completely vaccinated. We improved, as we requested the task force on vaccination, we requested that we be upgraded to A4 category so we were provided with vaccines and most I think all of us have completed the 2nd jab,” Gesmundo said.

The National Task Force Against COVID-19 has granted the judiciary’s request for inclusion in the priority list for COVID-19 vaccination of some 30,000 court personnel – including justices and judges – as Category A4.

“I am pleased to inform you that our request for inclusion in priority population group A4 (category A4) of the Philippine National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19 Vaccines has been granted by the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF),” then chief justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe said.

Category A4 are frontline personnel in essential sectors both in public and private sectors, including uniformed personnel, and those in working sectors identified by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases that are directly client facing and cannot dutifully meet minimum public health standards.

The letter-request for inclusion in the priority list stated that “justices, judges, and court personnel of the Philippine Judiciary (comprised of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Court of Tax Appeals, Sandiganbayan, and trial courts) are frontline government workers in the justice sector, whose functions are essential at all times, especially during the pandemic.”

More than 300,000 videoconferencing hearings held

Courts nationwide have conducted a total of 327, 991 videoconferencing hearings with a success rate of 87.57 percent since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

Also, Gesmundo revealed that a total of 90,040 persons deprived of liberty and children in conflict with the law have been released through videoconferencing.

Videoconferencing hearings ensure cases are heard in a timely manner, and comply with the government’s social distancing and remote work guidelines because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Videoconferencing for court hearings was approved by the SC in June last year. It was pilot-tested in Davao City courts.

On March 16, 2020, then chief justice Diosdado Peralta, in response to the exponential spread of COVID-19 cases in the country, issued A.C. 31-2020, and ordered that “all courts nationwide shall drastically reduce operations” and maintain only the necessary skeleton-staff to immediately act on urgent matters brought before them.