En Banc Resolution Dated 29 November 2022 in A.M. No. 22-10-133-RTC (Re: Request of Regional Trial Court Judges for Clarification on the Jurisdiction Over the Crime of Trafficking in Persons)

January 6, 2023

OCA CIRCULAR NO. 05-2023

 

For information, guidance, and strict observance, quoted below, and attached as Annex "A", is the Resolution of the Court en banc dated 29 November 2022 in A.M. No. 22-10-133-RTC (Re: Request of Regional Trial Court Judges for Clarification on the Jurisdiction over the Crime of Trafficking in Persons):

A.M. No. 22-10-133-RTC (Re: Request of Regional Trial Court Judges for Clarification on the jurisdiction over the Crime of Trafficking in Persons). — The Court Resolved, upon the recommendation of the Office of the Court Administrator, to:

(a) NOTE the request of Regional Trial Court Judges for clarification regarding the jurisdiction over the crime of trafficking in persons; and

(b) DELINEATE the jurisdiction over the crime of trafficking in persons under Republic Act No. 11862, otherwise known as the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2022, as follows:

(i) If one or more of the accused is below eighteen (18) years of age but not less than nine (9) years of age, or where one or more of the victims is a minor at the time of the commission of the offense, the case shall be heard before a Family Court pursuant to Section 5(a) of Republic Act No. 8369, otherwise known as the Family Courts Act of 1997; and

(ii) If the accused or victim is any person other than those mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the case shall be heard before a regular Regional Trial Court.

(SGD.) RAUL B. VILLANUEVACourt Administrator

ANNEX A

A.M. No. 22-10-133-RTC