1.         Herewith is the subject resolution, with the attachments as stated in the text thereof, approved by the Board of Commissioners on 18 December 1996.

2.         The Officer-in-Charge, Appeals Review Group and the Regional Officers are hereby directed to:

2.1           Assign responsible personnel to implement the prescribed procedures; and

2.2           Undertake measures necessary and incidental to compliance with the guidelines, paying particular attention to monitoring and reporting requirements.

For strict compliance and immediate implementation.

Adopted: 06 Jan. 1997


ATTACHMENT:


Pursuant to Section 5, (c) and (j) of Executive Order No. 648, Series of 1981, as amended by Executive Order No. 90, Series of 1986 and Rule XIX of HLRB Resolution No. R-586, Series of 1996, known as the 1996 Rules of Procedure of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, the following guidelines and procedures for Entry of Judgment are hereby adopted for the guidance of all concerned:


These guidelines and procedures have been formulated in order to attain the following objectives:

a.         To operationalize the Board's mandate of simplifying and ensuring the just and expeditious resolution of cases, thru the adoption of objective and reliable system of ascertaining the finality of its judgments, decisions and resolutions; and

b.         To aid and assist the Arbiters and operating offices of this Board, as well as the parties and their counsels, in determining and ensuring the finality and propriety of execution of said judgments, decisions and resolutions and avoiding controversies and delays relative thereto.


Entry of Judgment shall cover final and executory decisions which shall consist of the following:

a.         Decisions of the Housing and Land Use Arbiter that were not appealed within thirty (30) days after receipt by the parties.

b.         Judgments upon Compromise Agreements/Amicable Settlements between parties.

c.         Decisions of the Board that were not appealed to the Office of the President despite the lapse of fifteen (15) days after receipt by parties.

d.         Decisions of the Board acted upon by the Office of the President, after thirty (30) days from receipt of Notice of the Decision.

e.         Decisions of the Board acted upon by the Supreme Court, forty-five (45) days after receipt of Notice of Supreme Court Decisions.

f.          Interlocutory Orders/Resolutions directing specific acts and/or imposing sanctions and administrative fines after thirty (30) days upon receipt by the parties.


At the Central Office, under the supervision of the Director of ARG, the Dockets Processing Officer (DPO) assisted by the Records Officer of the said group, shall have overall responsibility for the implementation of the system of entry of judgments, and keep in his care and custody the Book of Judgments and Folders of Judgments.

In the Regional Offices, under the supervision of the Regional Officer, the Head of the Legal Services Section, assisted by the Regional Records Officer, shall be responsible for maintenance and safe-keeping of the Regional Book and Folders of Judgments.

In the performance of their respective functions, the ARG Dockets Processing Officer (DPO) and the Heads of the Legal Services Sections of the Regional Offices shall also be assisted by the Mailing of the General Services Division of the Central Office and the Administrative Sections of Regional Offices, respectively.

Relative thereto, the Head, GSD Central Office and the Administrative Heads of the Regional Offices shall ensure that Registry Return Receipts and Return Cards are properly secured from the post office and immediately turned-over to the custody of the ARG DPO or Head of the Legal Services Section, attention/care of their respective Records Officer. For this purpose, they shall assign one of their staff to coordinate on a regular basis with the ARG or the Regional Legal Services Section, as the case may be, with respect to the retrieval and turn-over of Registry Return Receipts and Return Cards.


The officers responsible for maintaining the system shall see to it that the following measures are observed, to ensure finality of the Board or Arbiters decision, to wit:

1.         Every decision furnished to the parties shall be mailed through registered mail (and special delivery, if available); for this purpose the Records Officers of Central and Regional Offices, and the heads of mailing units of such offices shall ensure that no decision, order or resolution of the Board or any Arbiter, as the case may be shall be released for mailing unless the same are accompanied by duly accomplished Registry Return Cards attach thereto;

2.         After the mailing of the decision, the designated mailer of the mailing units of the Central and Regional Offices shall secure from the postal office copies of the Registry Return Receipt (RRRs) for each decision, order or resolution mailed, and immediately forward or turn-over the same to the ARG Dockets Processing Officer or the Head of the Regional Legal Services Section, as the case may be, care or attention of their Records Officers;

3.         The Records Officer of the ARG or the Regional Office, shall immediately attach said RRRs to the original copy of the Decision, as proof of mailing thereof; and he shall then also immediately FILE the said original copy of the decision with the docket of the case and turn-over the docket to his records custodian;

4.         Upon instructions from the ARG DPO or in the case of Regional Offices, the heads of their Legal Services Sections, a their respective Records Officers shall regularly ascertain from the mailing unit if the Central or Regional Office, as the case may be, the date of receipt of the parties of the decision through the Registry Return Card;

5.         If despite the lapse of thirty (30) days from mailing of the decision, the Records Officer of either the ARG or the Regional Officer concerned finds that the Registry Return Card of the decision he is monitoring is not yet with the mailing unit, he shall forthwith prepare a letter request to the postal office to verify the status of delivery/transmittal of the decision.

6.         In case where the Registry Return Cards concerned cannot be found or have not been received by this Office, receipt of a certification from the postmaster(s) concerned as to the delivery and receipt of the letter by the addressee or his representative on the date specified therein shall be considered as conclusive proof-of such delivery.


Unless otherwise provided by the Board, all decisions shall be considered final after thirty (30) days in cases before the Arbiter and fifteen (15) days in cases appealed before the Board of Commissioners from receipt by the party concerned.

For purposes of entry to the Book of Judgment, the date of finality shall be thirty (30) days fifteen (15) days after the date of receipt by last party who received a copy of the decision of the Board or Arbiter as the case may be.

In all cases, provided that the above-cited measures have been complied with, the subject decision or order shall be presumed final and executory even without the registry return card or a certification from the post office sixty (60) days from the date of mailing and accordingly be entered in the Book of Judgment on the sixty-first (61st) day thereof.



Upon the finality of the decisions, resolutions or orders of this Board, as determined in accordance with Paragraphs D and E above, the responsible officer shall immediately thereafter, not later than ten (10) days from such finality, cause the entry thereof in the Book of Judgments.


The following procedure shall be observed by the Appeals Review Group in the entry of decisions of the Board of Commissioners which have already become final and executory, into the Central Book of Judgments:

A.1.1   To ensure effective monitoring and verification of finality of decisions, the legal officer, assisted by the Records Officer shall utilize the status control records indexing system and schedule all decisions for verification of finality, arranged chronologically per date of release. For this purpose, the records officer shall regularly update the index cards of the ARG and provide the Dockets Processing Officer with a daily list of released decisions, indicating the date of expected finality-thereof;

A.1.2   Upon receipt of a motion or manifestation by any party alleging the finality of a decision, or EVEN in the absence thereof, upon arrival of the date indicated in the list of released decision and/or in the status control index card of the case as the date of expected finality of the decision thereon, the Records Officer of ARG upon instruction from the legal officers, or on his own initiative, shall take preliminary actions to verify the finality of said decision. He shall retrieve the docket and verify whether a Registry Return Card (RRC) has been received or secured, and in the case the same is present he shall compute whether the required number of 30 days from the date of receipt thereof has been attained, and submit his findings to the ARG Legal Officer for his review and concurrence;

A.1.3   In case the RRC has not yet been received, or even if received, the date of receipt does not appear thereon, the Records Officer shall inform the Dockets Processing Officer of his findings, prepare a tracer letter addressed to the Post Office, and set aside the records of the case while awaiting the results of said verification;

A.1.4   Upon being convinced as to the proof of the finality of the Decision, the Legal Officer shall cause and verify the recording of the same by the Records Officer in the Book of Judgments;

A.1.5   Immediately after recording of the Decision into the Book of Judgments, Notices of Entry of Judgments shall be prepared by the Records Officer for signing by the Director, ARG and sent on sealed envelopes to parties and/or counsels. (A sample copy of the Notice of Entry of Judgment is attached herewith as Annex "A" hereof);

A.1.6   Upon entry in the Book of Judgments, the Dockets Processing Officer shall recommend to the Director of the ARG, the remand of the records of the case to the Office of Origin. The Records Officer shall then cause the transmittal of the said records without delay within three (3) working days from receipt of the signed transmittal memorandum; and

A.1.7   The Dockets Processing Officer shall submit to the Director of ARG a monthly summary of the entries made in the Book of Judgment and Notices of Entry that have been issued, every first week of the month, for the presentation to the Board.


For Regional Offices, the following procedures shall be observed by the regional staff in the entry of the Arbiter's decision which are final and executory into the Book of Judgments:

A.2.1   The same procedure as set forth in Items A.1.1 to A.1.3 shall be observed, with the preliminary determination of finality to be made by the Regional Records Officer who shall submit his findings to the Head, Legal Section for review and concurrence;

A.2.2   Upon being convinced as to the proof of finality of the Decision, the Head of Legal Section shall thereafter instruct the Regional Records Officer to cause the recording of the final decision in the Book of Judgment. Upon such entry, the Records Officer shall likewise prepare a Notice of Entry of Judgment for the signature by the Regional Director and mailing to the parties;

A.2.3   The Regional Records Officer shall keep a separate compilation in chronological order from date of promulgation a document file containing copies of all decisions/orders of the Arbiter;

A.2.4   The Head of the Regional Legal Services Section shall submit to the Regional Officer a summary of the entries made in the Regional Book of Judgment every first week of the month for inclusion in the monthly report to be submitted to the Appeals Review Group, as set forth in Paragraph H of these Guidelines.


To implement an effective system of entry of judgments, the Board shall maintain two (2) sets of Book of Judgment, one for Central Office and another for each of the Regional Offices.

The Judgment Book is a logbook or journal/ledger entry book which contains the following entries/information:

1.         Coded Entry Reference No. - contains date code (year-month-day), case code (T for TPZ, R for REM, U for ULR) page code and document number, entered chronologically.

2.         Case Option - Case No. and Names of First/Principal parties.

3.         Document Description - States whether decision, order or resolution.

4.         Document Dates - Date of Promulgation, Date of Release, Date of Finality.

5.         Dispositive Portion - (Summarize whenever practicable).

The folder of Judgments shall contain duly certified duplicate originals of decisions, resolutions and orders that are final and executory, as well as covering notices thereof that are filed chronologically.


Every first week of the month, the Regional Director shall submit to the Board thru the Appeals Review Group, authenticated copies of decisions/orders entered in the Book of Judgment and filed in their respective folder of judgments. The copies of the entries must be certified correct by the Records Custodian.


These Guidelines and Procedures shall take effect immediately upon approval.