[{"bbox": [97, 153, 1134, 233], "category": "Text", "text": "organisations. This could be a first but significant step in the direction of an open justice model¹⁰. This new mechanism can indeed prove key for improved justice provision at the local level and access to justice, and should also serve to generate learnings to be mainstreamed in other justice zones."}, {"bbox": [97, 259, 350, 285], "category": "Section-header", "text": "**Lack of Access to Justice:**"}, {"bbox": [97, 286, 1134, 446], "category": "Text", "text": "Justice in the Philippines also reflects the high levels of **inequality** in the country. Those with lower socio-economic status, or those living in rural or remote areas, are less likely to be aware of their rights and the remedies available to them, and ultimately to obtain protection or defend themselves adequately, especially in a context where the system does not guarantee quality free or affordable legal aid for all. The clogging of the system also impacts disproportionately those without adequate legal representation, thus helping perpetuate inequality. This lack of **access to justice** often leads to exclusion, grievances, and ultimately, social, and political instability."}, {"bbox": [97, 472, 1134, 656], "category": "Text", "text": "Part of the Department of Justice, the Public Attorney Office (PAO), is the institution in charge of providing the free legal counsel to those who wouldn't be able to afford it, so to implement the Constitutional guarantee of free access to courts, due process, and equal protection of the laws. In 2022 the PAO reports that each of its 2,400 lawyers had an average of 4,887 consultations from the public and handled 354 cases, which impacts on the quality of legal assistance they can provide to the public. The leadership of the PAO itself has admitted that its lawyers are overworked, and this leads to high rotation (the law sets a limit to the quantity of PAOs, and it has already been reached)."}, {"bbox": [97, 682, 1134, 817], "category": "Text", "text": "Recent indicators confirm the extent of challenges related to citizen's legal aid needs and their access to competent legal service providers. For example, the 2021 World Justice Project Rule of Law Index scored the Philippines at 0.52 (with 1.0 as having accessible justice and 0 as having no access). This places the country below the global average of 0.56, ranking 87th out of 140 countries in the world and 11th out of 15 countries in the East Asia and Pacific Region¹¹."}, {"bbox": [97, 843, 1134, 1213], "category": "Text", "text": "The Supreme Court (SC) is ready to play a leading role to improve access to justice in the country. Over the years, the SC has launched several programmes to enhance access to justice by those sectors of population that live in most vulnerable situations (remote communities, people living in poverty, etc.), including the Justice on Wheels Programme (JOW) and the Clinical Legal Education Programme (CLEP). The JOW was created in 2004 to alleviate the backlog of courts and make justice more accessible to remote areas that lack functioning courts. The programme has allowed buses to serve as both a courtroom in the front and a mediation centre in the back. Initially, the programme sought to alleviate decongestion in youth reception centres, juvenile facilities, and jails. The SC wants now to re-direct this effort to reach remote areas with difficult access to courts. The Clinical Legal Education Program (CLEP) is initiative from the Supreme Court -which is in charge of managing the Bar examination- that requires law schools to set up “clinics” in which students -under the guidance of experienced lawyers and law professors- are assigned to handle the legal cases of clients who are unable to afford the services of a lawyer. The review of Justice-on-wheels and Clinical Legal Education programmes is indicated in the SPJI as necessary actions to calibrate and adjust future legal aid. The PDP 2023-2028 confirms the importance of JOW and will support the SC in its expansion¹²."}, {"bbox": [97, 1240, 1134, 1373], "category": "Text", "text": "The SC is also spearheading an initiative to bring together all relevant stakeholders (DOJ, PAO, Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Philippine Association of Law Schools, and alternative law groups) that will map available legal aid services per locality and create an online database of free legal aid providers, evaluate all the legal aid programmes in the country or conduct an impact evaluation of the judicial processes and services on marginalised groups and communities, in order to be able to make policy decisions.¹³"}, {"bbox": [97, 1399, 1134, 1478], "category": "Text", "text": "In parallel to this, and to improve efficiency, the PDP also proposes the advancement in the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). The aim is to reduce the overall backlog of the judiciary by reducing the number of cases that need to reach the formal justice system. One of those mechanisms, - the main one in terms of its"}, {"bbox": [87, 1525, 1144, 1573], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁰ An “open justice” approach involves including of CSOs not as observers or even implementers of some justice activities, but as co-creators of justice public policy."}, {"bbox": [87, 1573, 587, 1599], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹¹ World Justice Rule of Law Index 2022, pages 11 and 141."}, {"bbox": [87, 1599, 326, 1623], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹² PDP 2023-2028, page 312"}, {"bbox": [87, 1623, 1105, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹³ https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/UN_principles_and_guidlines_on_access_to_legal_aid.pdf"}, {"bbox": [87, 1682, 193, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 32"}]