SC tells courts: Resolve commercial cases within a year

Court Administrator Midas Marquez told courts not to delay and act swiftly on commercial cases.

In a circular dated July 27, Marquez said that “all judges of the Special Commercial courts and those handling commercial cases are hereby strongly reminded that pursuant to Sec. 72, Republic Act No. 10142, courts ‘shall have a maximum period of one (1) year from the date of the filing of the petition to confirm a Rehabilitation Plan’.”

“Judges are likewise enjoined to ‘remain in full control of the proceedings in (their) sala and should adopt a firm policy against improvident postponements. More importantly, (they) should follow the time limit set for the deciding of cases,’ and that ‘failure to decide cases and other matters within the reglementary period constitutes gross inefficiency and warrants the imposition of administrative sanctions against the erring magistrate,” he also said.

Marquez issued the circular after having received an appeal from Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez,

The finance secretary asked the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) to “ensure that courts comply with their mandate” due to “the delay in the resolution of various commercial cases filed in courts such as rehabilitation, insolvency, and liquidation cases, among others.”

Dominguez cited that in cases involving Land Bank of the Philippines, a creditor-party in numerous rehabilitation and insolvency proceedings, “there appears to be a questionable trend of unwarranted delay and/or circumvention of court proceedings” and “have remained pending for more than one (1) year without any approved rehabilitation plan.”

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