At a high-attendance session hosted alongside a taguig law firm, joseph plazo delivered a message that landed with equal force on public officials: “Substantive criminal law tells you what is illegal. Criminal procedure tells you what actually happens.”
What followed was a civic-minded 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 fairness.
Speaking from a taguig law firm vantage—where real clients need predictability—Plazo treated procedure as the country’s justice “operating system”: invisible when it works.
The Hidden Engine of Justice
According to joseph plazo, most people assume the “important part” of criminal law is the statute. But statutes don’t run cases—motions do.
“Procedure decides whether the innocent get cleared quickly,” Plazo explained, “and whether the guilty are prosecuted competently.”
He framed criminal procedure updates into a simple triad:
Rulemaking—what the Supreme Court changes in how cases move
Interpretation—the hidden levers in deadlines and standards
Practice—what lawyers actually experience day to day
Rewriting the Playbook: Criminal Procedure Revisions Underway
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.
“You don’t host writeshops to change commas,” he added. “You do it because the system is demanding modernization.”
From a taguig law firm perspective, this signals direction, even if the final text is not yet fully consolidated in one public narrative.
“Procedure reform is a leading indicator,” Plazo noted. “It tells you what the judiciary is trying to fix: speed, clarity, and fairness—at the same time.”
Update Two: Anti-Terrorism Case Procedure Now Has Dedicated Rules
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.
“In high-stakes cases, procedure is often the real battlefield,” Plazo said.
He emphasized an institutional reality: specialized procedural rules are often designed to reduce uncertainty 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:
tighter hearing discipline.
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 get more info 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 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:
Tempo is becoming policy through calendars and reduced postponements.
Modernization is being signaled by ongoing revision work on the core rules.
“This is a justice system trying to reduce ambiguity,” Plazo said.
The Taguig City Lens: Procedure Meets Daily Reality
Plazo emphasized that procedural updates are felt most intensely where cases accumulate: local courts.
In Taguig, where a city can contain:
dense residential zones,
criminal procedure becomes a daily stabilizer.
“Local practice is where procedure becomes real,” joseph plazo said.
A taguig law firm serving both individual clients experiences these shifts as changes in:
expectations of readiness.
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.
“The era of ‘we’ll fix it later’ collapses when calendars harden,” he noted.
He suggested—not legal advice, but operational mindset—that lawyers increasingly must:
reduce reliance on postponements.
“Speed doesn’t forgive disorganization,” he added.
Efficiency Cannot Become Injustice
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 expectations explicit.
A Taguig Law Firm Checklist for Tracking Criminal Procedure Updates
To close, joseph plazo offered a framework—useful for policy teams—for tracking procedural change without chasing noise:
Follow proposed amendments and revision workshops
Watch specialized procedural rules in sensitive categories
Watch the calendar: enforcement tells the story
Track jurisprudence that shifts prescription and interruption rules
Operationalize knowledge—don’t just collect it
He ended with a line that sounded tailor-made for Taguig’s blend of civic life and high-velocity commerce:
“The purpose of procedure is not to slow justice—it’s to make justice trustworthy,” he said.
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.