THE Supreme Court is expanding its drive for faster and more accessible justice, bringing 32 second-level courts into its High-Performance Courts Initiative to improve efficiency, strengthen public feedback and make judicial services more responsive.
The second-level courts will join 41 first-level courts in testing a performance framework that uses data and feedback from court users and personnel to identify strengths, pinpoint problem areas and develop practical interventions.
Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, chairman of the Committee on High-Performance Courts, introduced the 32 participating second-level courts during the initiative’s kickoff at the Clark Marriott Hotel in Angeles, Pampanga.
Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, other court officials, participating judges and court personnel, project mentors, and representatives of the European Union Governance in Justice Programme (EU-Gojust) attended the event.
Caguioa said that the initiative is not designed to rank or punish courts, but to help them improve the experience of people who seek justice.
“Why does access to justice matter? When the judicial services are accessible, court users are able to trust the justice system, and public trust is the very lifeblood of the Judiciary,” Caguioa said.
He said the program seeks to help courts develop a culture of excellence and become high-performing institutions throughout the litigation process.
The initiative was initially piloted in eight first-level courts last year with EU-Gojust support. The experience led the high court to refine its Performance Development Framework, resulting in PDF 2.0, which will now focus on three development goals: internal processes, external stakeholder satisfaction and internal stakeholder satisfaction.
The framework will examine how efficiently courts move cases through the judicial process, including case disposition rates, case clearance and case duration. But the high court emphasized that these figures will serve as diagnostic tools rather than rigid scorecards.
“Raw numbers alone do not tell the whole story,” Court Management Office official Erwin Ocson said, noting that data must be interpreted alongside the unique circumstances of each court.
The initiative will also directly measure how court users experience the justice system. Through paper questionnaires and online forms accessed through QR codes, litigants, lawyers, witnesses and other court users will assess areas such as access to information, assistance, efficiency, facilities, technology and accessibility for vulnerable groups.
Court personnel will likewise be surveyed on workload, communication, workplace conditions, judge-staff relations, training, professional development, compensation, benefits and overall job satisfaction.
The Supreme Court said this reflects the view that efficient judicial services depend not only on systems and procedures but also on the people who deliver them.
The expanded program will introduce several tools, including the HPC Calculator, HPC Dashboard and HPC Companion, as well as mentorship and coaching and data-literacy training. The tools are intended to help courts understand their performance and determine appropriate interventions.
The second-level court rollout will begin on Nov. 3, 2026, starting with the External Stakeholder Satisfaction component through online QR-code surveys. Preparations are also underway for the mentoring system.
Justice Antonio Kho Jr., vice chairman of the HPC Committee, described a high-performing court as “humane, perceptive and consistent” — one that understands that behind every case is a person seeking justice and remains responsive to the needs of its community and personnel.
“At the end of it, the HPC initiative should not be treated as a competition against peers,” Kho said. “Instead, it is a way for our courts to be humane, perceptive, and consistent, ensuring that our bosses, who are the court’s users, would continually trust in the court processes in every step they take.”
The 32 second-level courts joining the expanded pilot are located in the National Capital Region, Benguet, La Union, Pangasinan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Quezon
