Recommendation to Remove or Modify the Decisions Posted in the SC Website Involving Cases of Violence Against Women and Their Children

September 4, 2012

EN BANC

A.M. No. 12-7-15-SC

NOTICE

Sirs/Mesdames :

Please take notice that the Court en banc issued a Resolution dated September 4, 2012, which reads as follows:

"A.M. No. 12-7-15-SC — RE: RECOMMENDATION OF ATTY. MARIA VICTORIA GLEORESTY SP. GUERRA, DIRECTOR IV & ACTING CHIEF, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE, TO REMOVE OR MODIFY THE DECISIONS POSTED IN THE SC WEBSITE INVOLVING CASES OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN. TSIEAD

In a letter dated July 13, 2012, Atty. Maria Victoria Gleoresty SP. Guerra, Director IV and Acting Chief, Public Information Office, requests the Court's guidance regarding the letters, endorsed to her office, from relatives and litigants-victims (movants) 1 in sexually-related crimes; they request the removal of decisions involving these crimes from the Court's website to make the victims' identities (and those of their relatives) confidential.

According to Atty. Guerra, the decisions subject of these requests were promulgated prior to the effectivity on March 27, 2004 of Republic Act (R.A.) No. 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004, which mandated the confidentiality of all records pertaining to cases of violence against women and their children. These decisions also came before the Court's ruling on September 19, 2006 in the case of People v. Cabalquinto, 2 where the Court directed the withholding of the names of the victims of crimes of violence against women, children and their relatives, and of such other personal circumstances that would establish or compromise their identities. These decisions were also promulgated prior to the Court's Resolution 3 in A.M. No. 99-7-06-SC, Re: In Re Internet Web Page of the Supreme Court, where we resolved "in the meantime" to refrain from posting in the internet web page the full text of decisions in cases involving child sexual abuse.

Atty. Guerra recommends that the letters-requests be granted in order to assist the movants in their recovery process, either by removing or modifying the decisions posted in the Court's website.

We agree with Atty. Guerra's recommendation under the terms of the Guidelines outlined below.

In addition to our ruling in Cabalquinto and the policy we laid down in A.M. No. 99-7-06-SC, we have adopted rules in court proceedings that ensure confidentiality of the identities of relatives and litigants in sexually-related crimes. 4 However, with the increase in the public's access to information on court decisions, we also recognize that the protection to privacy afforded to these litigants must now extend beyond court proceedings.

The State's policy of affording special protection to women and children who are victims of violence and child abuse is unequivocal and is a policy that the Court fully supports. In line with this policy, the provisions on confidentiality under R.A. No. 9262 and other laws affecting women and children who are victims of violence and child abuse must be extended not only prospectively, but even retroactively in order to apply to previously resolved cases which have not benefited from the abovecited law and rulings. The cutoff date of retroactive application should be 1996, the year of the earliest SC decisions in the SC website. This approach will immeasurably help the victims-litigants and their relatives by limiting the aggravation of the trauma that may have resulted or that may result in the disclosure of their identities in Court decisions published in the Supreme Court's openly-accessible website. DACcIH

ACCORDINGLY, the Court hereby resolves to:

(1) NOTE the letter dated July 13, 2012 of Atty. Maria Victoria Gleoresty SP. Guerra, Director IV and Acting Chief, Public Information Office;

(2) ESTABLISH the following Guidelines for compliance:

a.These Guidelines shall cover decisions under R.A. No. 9262 (Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004), R.A. No. 7610 (Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act) and R.A. No. 9208 (Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003); and cases where the confidentiality of the court proceedings and the identity of the parties involved are mandated by law and/or by the rules in order to protect the privacy and the dignity of the victims and their relatives. 5

b. Decisions rendered by lower courts are likewise covered if they are to be posted in the part of the Supreme Court's official website openly accessible to the public.

c. The modification of the decisions shall extend to: (a) the withholding of the names of the women and child victims in covered decisions and the use of fictitious initials instead; and (b) the non-disclosure of their personal circumstances or any other information tending to identify them or disclose their identities, including the names and information of their immediate family and household members, from which data the identities of the victims can be inferred. 6

d. The modification of covered decisions shall only be made in the part of the official website of the Supreme Court openly accessible to the public. Decisions subject to modification shall extend only to those published in the Supreme Court website beginning 1996, the year of the earliest Supreme Court decisions uploaded and made publicly accessible in the SC website. cDCIHT

e. Modifications shall be made by the Public Information Office (PIO). The PIO shall furnish a monthly list of modified decisions to the SC Clerk of Court, the SC Library and the Office of the Reporter.

The Office of the Court Administrator, through its Legal Office, shall make the required modifications for lower court decisions to be uploaded in the Supreme Court's official website. Covered decisions of the Court of Appeals and the Sandiganbayan shall be modified by their respective Clerks of Court who shall furnish a monthly list of these modified decisions to their respective libraries, to the PIO and the SC Library.

f. Modification of covered decisions in the SC E-Library and other SC sites which are accessible only by using a "username" and "password" provided by the SC Library, shall be made by the SC Library.

g. The SC Library, the other court libraries, the Clerks of Court of the Court of Appeals and of the Sandiganbayan, and the Office of the Court Reporter shall duly take note of the Guidelines and the modified decisions, and shall not release to the public hard copies of the original or unmodified decisions that have been modified as provided under pars. (e) and (f) above;

(3) GRANT the letter-requests of the following movants: (1) Ronald Diaz; (2) Karen Campomanes-Reyes; (3) Mary Jane Calinagan; (4) Rizen Quijano; and (5) Geraldine Panique Takato; and

(4) DIRECT the PIO to submit a report, within fifteen (15) days, on the modifications it made on the uploaded decisions involving these movants.

The responsible court office and/or concerned court personnel are STRICTLY ORDERED to follow the Guidelines. The Court may impose administrative sanctions for non-compliance or for failure to adopt measures to comply with the provisions of the Guidelines." (adv38) EHcaDT

Very truly yours,

(SGD.) ENRIQUETA E. VIDALClerk of Court

Footnotes

1.Except for Michael Alexius A. Sarte who requests for the removal of the decision in his annulment case, the other movants are relatives or victims of sexually-related crimes. They are: (1) Ronald Diaz; (2) Karen Campomanes-Reyes; (3) Mary Jane Calinagan; (4) Rizen Quijano; and (5) Geraldine Panique Takato.

2.533 Phil. 703 (2006).

3.Dated February 14, 2006.

4.Re: Rule on Violence Against Women and Their Children, A.M. No. 04-10-11-SC, October 19, 2004.

5.The request in A.M. No. 11-8-8-SC, Re: Recommendation of Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez that in Decisions Regarding Petitions for Annulment of Marriage and Declaration of Marriage the Names and Identifying Particulars of the Parties be Withheld and that Instead Fictitious Initials be Used is still pending with the Court.

6.See People v. Cabalquinto, supra note 2.