Pilacan, Karyl Vic Pilacan January 17, 2017

Section 2-D
ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION REACTION PAPER

I have to agree that there is really a need to decongest court dockets and to broaden
access to Justice. There are 3 modes enumerated in resolving Disputes, The unilateral Mode,
Bilateral Mode, and the Third party intervention which has two modes, namely mediation
and judicial resolution of disputes. Even with the 1st mode and 2nd mode present and even
including mediation, court dockets are still congested, and such problem would result in a
delay where even some aggrieved parties might not even receive justice in their lifetime.
There are two approaches to be taken as a solution in decongesting court dockets, the
direct approach and the indirect approach. Direct approach is to deal directly with the
current problem through disposition of cases by training judges. But I prefer the indirect
approach which is solve the dispute before it adds up the congested court dockets.

Alternative dispute resolution is meant to settle dispute outside the court by having
the parties of the case agree with a settlement in order to avoid having the case be brought
up to the courts. Indirect approach is the solution that should be followed if there isn’t really
a need to go to the courts considering the growing population of the Philippines and the
piling numbers of disputes to be resolved by the courts. One of the modes of indirect
approach is the katarungang pambarangay law (KBL), this law what I can think as the best
mode of indirect approach and a very helpful system in decongesting court dockets. Its
process is to establish lupon’s in each barangay and arbitration panels for each disputes to
be chosen by the parties. Any complainant who has a cause of action and which is within the
scope of authority of the lupon my file a complaint with it. By doing such, it has already
prevented increasing the problem of congestion. Also, one rule in KBL is that it is a pre-
condition before a complainant may file directly with the courts. Therefore, parties to a
dispute should make efforts to agree on a compromise agreement before the arbitration
panel before they can go to the courts to settle their disputes. One can see how this is very
helpful since not all parties to a dispute may afford the fees being required by the courts as
compared to KBL.

The barangay justice system is really helpful not only to the parties of the dispute but
also in general. There is a continuous increase in the population and therefore the increase
in conflict amongst us. A state must do all it has in its power in order to prevent or mitigate
the number of conflict but in order to do that the people of such state must also help by
trying to resolve their own problem and to resort only to the judicial system after all
recourse available to them outside the court has been resorted to by the parties. This is why
I think KBL is the best indirect approach in resolving the problem of congestion in the court
dockets because it is a pre-condition for judicial adjudication.