Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo (File photo)
MANILA – Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo on Monday said the judiciary will develop a network infrastructure that would interconnect the courts’ information technology (IT) systems nationwide as part of its long-term development program.
Speaking during the 1st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s (SC) Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations (SPJI), Gesmundo said he is hoping the network infrastructure will start to operate next year.
"We will develop a network infrastructure which would be needed to support the Judiciary’s information and communications requirements for the multiple locations of its courts, from the Supreme Court, the Appellate Courts, and trial court stations spread across the country,” he said.
“As a prerequisite for the rollout of the application systems to the lower courts, court buildings need to have local area networks installed for better management of ICT (information and communication technology) resources," he added.
Gesmundo, however, admitted that the project “will be a big challenge” for them, considering the Philippines has over 7,000 islands.
"The network infrastructure we will develop for the Judiciary will ensure network interoperability aimed at providing robust, clean and timely sharing of data across the entire organization,” he said.
“By achieving network interoperability, sharing of data will be more secure and efficient as it will limit the need for manual processing of information. Court officials and employees could work more productively, with databases, and other applications connecting and sharing information, fostering better communication which is critical to organizational excellence," he added.
He said SPJI will also prioritize the streamlining of both the administrative and adjudicative functions of the court following a top-to-bottom organizational review.
"For maximum efficiency, it is important for the Court to trim the fat within its ranks and purge non-efficient processes. To achieve this, the Court will do a staffing review that is expected to result in a staffing pattern and model depicting the mix, hierarchy, and number of positions for each organizational unit," Gesmundo said. (PNA)
