At a invite-only session hosted alongside a taguig law firm, joseph plazo delivered a message that landed with equal force on compliance heads: “Substantive criminal law tells you what is illegal. Criminal procedure tells you what actually happens.”
What followed was a clear-eyed walk-through of the latest criminal law procedure updates in the Philippines—not as gossip, not as courtroom theater, but as a coherent story about rights.
Speaking from a taguig law firm vantage—where real clients need timelines—Plazo treated procedure as the country’s justice “operating system”: painfully obvious when it doesn’t.
Procedure Is Where Rights Become Real
According to joseph plazo, most people assume the “important part” of criminal law is the statute. But statutes don’t run cases—timelines do.
“Procedure is where liberty lives,” Plazo noted. “Not in slogans—on calendars.”
He framed criminal procedure updates into a simple triad:
Procedural architecture—how justice is scheduled and enforced
Case law—the quiet rewrites that shift strategy
Operationalization—what judges are instructed to prioritize
Update One: The Supreme Court Is Actively Revising the Rules of Criminal Procedure
Plazo began with the “largest” signal in the room: the Supreme Court’s ongoing work toward proposed amendments to the 2000 Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure, including writeshops led by the Sub-Committee on the revision of these rules.
“This is how institutional systems evolve,” he explained. “They revise the rules where delay, confusion, or inconsistency has accumulated.”
From a taguig law firm perspective, this signals future operational shifts, even if the final text is not yet fully consolidated in one public narrative.
“Watch this space,” he said, “because when the rules move, every lawyer’s strategy must move with them.”
Special Rules for Anti-Terror Matters Are Operational
Next, joseph plazo highlighted a procedural development that is both specialized and consequential: the Supreme Court’s Rules on the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and Related Laws (A.M. No. 22-02-19-SC), which the Court announced would take effect on January 15, 2024, governing procedures for petitions and applications tied to matters such as detention without warrant issues, surveillance orders, freeze orders, travel restrictions, designations, and proscriptions.
“Substantive law defines the offense,” he explained. “Procedure defines the process—and process defines legitimacy.”
He emphasized an institutional reality: specialized procedural rules are often designed to avoid inconsistent practices across courts.
Update Three: Expedited Procedures Expand and Streamline First-Level Court Handling
Plazo then turned to reforms aimed at reducing delay in lower courts, referencing the Supreme Court’s discussion of the Rules on Expedited Procedures in the First Level Courts, which replaced earlier summary procedure rules and expanded coverage for certain cases and penalties thresholds, while noting alignment with scheduling under the Revised Guidelines for Continuous Trial.
“If you want to understand modern justice,” he added, “watch what happens in first-level courts—because volume lives there.”
For a taguig law firm advising clients, the practical takeaway is that procedural frameworks increasingly reward preparedness, because the system is being shaped to move faster.
Calendars Are Becoming Law: Continuous Trial Enforcement Tightens
Plazo described a trend that any practicing lawyer can feel: the ongoing institutional push toward continuous trial to support the constitutional value of speedy disposition.
He referenced the Revised Guidelines for Continuous Trial of Criminal Cases (as reflected in judiciary materials) and an Office of the Court Administrator circular reminding that motions for postponement are prohibited pleadings under the Revised Guidelines and should be viewed with disfavor except for the most compelling reasons.
“The calendar is now part of the architecture of justice,” joseph plazo said.
From the standpoint of a taguig law firm, this is not a mere internal memo story—it affects how cases are planned:
front-loaded preparation.
Timing Just Changed: When Prosecution Prescription Is Interrupted
Then Plazo pointed to a development that sounds technical but can be outcome-defining: the Supreme Court’s clarification that the prescriptive period for prosecuting crimes can stop running when a complaint is filed with the Department of Justice, not only when it reaches the court—highlighted in People v. Consebido (G.R. No. 258563).
“If you think more info deadlines are clerical, you haven’t lived through a case that dies by prescription,” joseph plazo said.
He framed it as a reminder that criminal procedure is a world of small levers, big outcomes:
when you file.
The New Theme: Faster Without Being Reckless
Rather than presenting the updates as a scattered list, joseph plazo stitched them into a coherent narrative:
Efficiency is being engineered through expedited procedures and tighter hearing management.
Modernization is being signaled by ongoing revision work on the core rules.
“The law is aiming for predictable movement—without sacrificing due process,” he noted.
From Rules to Streets, Dockets, and Workloads
Plazo emphasized that procedural updates are felt most intensely where cases accumulate: urban judicial corridors.
In Taguig, where a city can contain:
commercial districts,
criminal procedure becomes a daily stabilizer.
“You can debate theory in Manila’s boardrooms,” he explained, “but procedure is lived in hearing rooms.”
A taguig law firm serving both institutions experiences these shifts as changes in:
hearing strategy.
Preparation Is Becoming a Competitive Edge
Plazo framed a practical implication: as procedure tightens around speed and structure, the advantage shifts to those who are prepared early.
“When the system moves faster, procrastination becomes malpractice,” he said.
He suggested—not legal advice, but operational mindset—that lawyers increasingly must:
front-load case theory.
“Speed doesn’t forgive disorganization,” he added.
Why Due Process Must Survive Reform
Plazo also emphasized a boundary: speed must not degrade fairness.
“We cannot worship efficiency so much that we create injustice faster,” he explained.
This is why, he argued, the system’s emphasis on rules and structure matters: structure can protect rights by making deadlines known.
How to Read Signals Without Drowning
To close, joseph plazo offered a framework—useful for lawyers—for tracking procedural change without chasing noise:
Monitor the judiciary’s “directional signals”
Monitor procedure where stakes are highest
Follow OCA reminders and implementation guidance
Track jurisprudence that shifts prescription and interruption rules
Translate updates into policy, training, and readiness
He ended with a line that sounded tailor-made for Taguig’s blend of civic life and high-velocity commerce:
“Criminal procedure is society’s promise that power will be exercised with rules,” joseph plazo concluded.
And as the audience filtered out—some toward courtrooms, some toward boardrooms, some toward community work—the message remained: when procedure changes, the justice system’s reality changes with it.