High court to have its own home, finally

The Supreme Court will finally have a home of its own.

President Aquino, with Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, on Friday led the groundbreaking rites at the 21,463-square-meter (2.1-hectare) site of what is touted to be a modern, green and disaster-resilient Supreme Court Complex, the new headquarters of the high court set to rise by 2019.

“For the first time in seven decades, our Supreme Court will have its own home,” Mr. Aquino said.

According to Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe, the building that the Supreme Court is currently occupying is owned by the University of the Philippines.

“The high court has been in constant search for a viable site that can cope with the demands of the times and a place it could call its own,” said Bernabe, cochair of the committee on the new Supreme Court complex.

The new Supreme Court building will rise to nine stories at the former Philippine Army Security Escort Group Area at Fort Bonifacio, which is now part of the upscale Bonifacio Global City development in Taguig City.

“The Supreme Court Complex is proof that when there is legitimate need, for as long as it will lead to good, we will do the best of our abilities to respond to that need,” the President said.

“This way, we will strengthen our institutions and make our services more effective for our bosses, the Filipino nation,” Mr. Aquino said.

Sereno said the occasion was doubly significant as she said it comes at a time when the judiciary under her administration has made headway in promoting judicial reforms.

“Today, we have broken ground in more ways than one. A few minutes ago, we broke ground to start building the SC’s new home,” she said in her remarks.

“But we also have broken ground to work on much-needed change in the way we do things. In the last three years, the Supreme Court has approached old problems in the administration of justice with new eyes, coming up with solutions that are sensible, practical, innovative and always responsive to the needs of those who need justice the most,” she said.

The President said the government has realized the need to improve the Supreme Court’s facilities given the problematic layout of offices at the current site.

For one, Mr. Aquino noted, those who file cases must go to two separate buildings, as the docket office is separate from the cashier where they have to pay filing fees.

He recalled how years ago he paid a visit to the office of now retired Associate Justice Eduardo Nachura in Padre Faura. “There was a pile of papers, a garage, and adjacent to the office was a canteen. It didn’t seem to be an office befitting a magistrate,” he said.

According to Bernabe, the new Supreme Court complex will have a gross area of 4.2 hectares, roughly 20 percent more than the current complex. The space is enough to have 51 offices and facilities for en banc and division sessions.

Also part of the project is the construction of a six-story parking building for court personnel, and enough space for at least 600 parking slots.

“Aesthetically, it will be at par with foreign counterparts, or even better,” said Bernabe, who presented details of the project during the groundbreaking.