Simply called ePayment System, the innovation is the latest of the reforms undertaken by the tribunal as part of a massive computerization initiative it started under the term of former Chief Justice Hilario Davide.

The payment solution was "soft launched" last November during the Internal Conference and Showcase of Judicial Reforms (ICSJR) organized by the SC. It is currently being pilot tested in the Offices of the Clerk of Court in Makati City and Quezon City.

The system, developed in partnership with the Land Bank of the Philippines, features a "real-time and secured" payment process done via the Internet, allowing the transfer of funds from a Landbank account to the SC account. The application also allows clerks of court to assess payments by litigants when filing legal cases.

With this in place, the SC said the "status of assessment and payment transactions can be reviewed anytime, and daily or monthly reports of collected fees can be generated faster and more accurately."

The high court did not say how long the trial run would last or when it would commercially deploy the Web-based payment system.

The electronic payment solution is one of the major components of the SC’s modernization agenda under the Action Program for Judicial Reform (APJR) that was launched during Davide’s watch.

The high court acknowledged that the computerization of all Philippine courts "is one of the costliest judicial reforms" but also said "that catching up with innovations brought about by computer technology will pave the way to speedier dispensation of justice."

To oversee the program, the SC created last year a "Committee on Computerization" composed of four associate justices with Justice Artemio Panganiban (recently appointed chief justice) as chairman, and Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Justice Antonio Carpio, and Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez as members.

The other members of the group are Court Administrator Presbiterio Velasco Jr., the presiding justices of the Court of Appeals, the Sandiganbayan and Court of Tax Appeals, Atty. Ivan John Uy, and Evelyn Toledo-Dumdum, director of the Program Management Office.

As an institution built on established court practices and procedure, the Committee on Computerization is tasked with providing direction on computerization as well as studying policy issues that may arise from the implementation of new technologies within the judicial system.

At this early, however, the SC has already adopted and implemented several computerized information systems through its computer technology arm, the Management Information System Office (MISO) headed by Atty. Uy.

These information systems include the Roll of Attorneys Information System, Bar Monitoring System, Case Monitoring System, Case Flow Management System, Court Administration and Management Information System, and the e-Library.

The MISO also designed and regularly updates the SC homepage located at www.supremecourt.gov.ph. The site also contains a link to the Philippine Judicial Academy (PhilJA) which provides a self-paced e-learning program for judges on electronic evidence and psychological incapacity.

In terms of computer resources, the high court has already allocated a computer set to each of the 2,130 lower courts scattered across the country. It distributed 1,233 PCs to court salas in 2002, followed by 383 in 2003, and 1,117 in 2004.

The SC also has an existing local area network running various back-office applications. It also purchased ICT-related equipment such as videoconferencing facilities which the court used during the ICSJR to hold a videoconference session with American justices who were not able to physically attend the event last November.